The Walking Dead Video Game - Season Two
by TheGeorgieB
Summary: In The Walking Dead, the everlasting struggle to survive continues as the number of walkers only seems to rise, and finding survivors who can be trusted becomes more and more of a challenge. As Clementine and her group are about to realise, the greatest struggle is not with the dead, but with the living, when they are confronted by a devastating evil in the form of The Sheriff.
1. Episode I - Chapter One

Episode One: Choices We Make

Chapter One: Lord of the Flies

It was hot. The hottest it had been since the nightmare had begun. Donald wondered if it was summer. He had long since lost count of the days he and his wife had been on the road. They had just left the hellhole that was Macon. It was just as bad as all of the other places they had ever hoped could serve as a haven to them, the two weary travellers who had long grown tired of running for their lives. Strangely, it wasn't the mass loss in human life, the fear of starvation, or the ever present danger of the walking dead that bothered Donald and Alice. They missed the simple things like TV dinners, Newspapers and a warm bed at night. Earlier, Donald had confessed to his wife, Alice, that he would do anything to sleep somewhere other than in his RV tonight. A couple of hours later, the RV's front left tire had burst. Alice, whom had always been a superstitious woman, even in this world, gave her husband the look he had come to recognise after forty years of marriage. It wasn't a look of hate, spite or even condescension. Donald couldn't describe it, but it made him smile every time.

"What do you think?" Alice asked her husband as she continued to read her novel. Donald had always envied her ability to multi-task, and he did so again as he looked up from the remains of the burst tire to reply to her.

"What do I think about what?"

"When will we be back on the road?"

"Whenever we find ourselves a new mode of transportation because this piece of junk isn't going anywhere," Donald said to Alice with regret. They had had the RV for the majority of their married life. It had gotten them through a lot over the precious years they had spent together. And they weren't unfamiliar with sleeping inside the RV either. Donald thought back twenty years to when a house infestation involving some nasty vermin had forced the two to have their house fumigated, leaving the two homeless. Donald had insisted that the two make use of the RV Donald had invested in so long ago that it was beginning to gather dust. Donald, who never liked to see money go to waste, was beginning to fear that he would never find a use for the old trailer. Even though he now couldn't find more use for the RV, Donald did not waste a thought regretting his past worries. The unthinkable had happened. He could never have predicted that he would ever dust off his beloved RV, so that he and his wife could ride into the sunset to escape the grasp of the undead. Donald suddenly realised that he was daydreaming again, and when he did finally return to the real world, he was met with a changed look on his wife's face. It was a look that reeked of hopelessness. And it was another one of those looks that Donald now recognised all too well.

The RV had been the one constant thing that Donald and Alice had, besides each other, that had survived this nightmare. After abandoning their home to a swarm of walkers, the RV had become Donald and Alice's new home. It had been just the three of them and the road for a good three months of surviving. They had even managed to avoid their fair share of walkers on their travels. When they lost the RV, they hadn't just lost a crucial factor in their success in staying alive, but as pathetic as Donald realised it may sound, he realised that to them, losing the RV had been like losing a beloved member of the family. He couldn't bring himself to say it aloud, but he knew that losing the RV had removed any hope of surviving in this hellish world. Alice did not say a word after Donald had presented to her the destroyed tire. She had checked the back of the RV, only to immediately remember the spare tire they had used two months ago when a tire had burst after Donald had hit a walker in the road. She turned, and drowned herself in her book once again. Donald noticed she was reading the same William Golding novel he had once recommended to her almost a year ago. It was about the only thing he had read in recent memory, but was certainly the only thing he had seen his wife read for as long as he had known her. _Of course it would take the end of the world to get that woman to read something other than the obituaries_, Donald thought to himself.

Realising that Alice was hiding her emotions in the pages of _Lord of the Flies_, Donald chose to do the same by pulling out a suitcase from under his bed in the RV, dragging it outside (he had intended to carry it, but it was much heavier than he had expected) and letting it fall with a loud thud. The noise did not gage a reaction from Alice, who was too invested in the final chapters of her novel to notice Donald's sudden need to ransack her suitcase. He breathed heavily as he threw aside useless tools that Alice had packed, obviously in a blind panic. Donald wondered if he would ever need any of these everyday items again. He picked up another tool, and wondered again, but he couldn't envision a situation where a bottle-opener would win him his life. There were not wine bottles left to be opened, and even then Donald was teetotal. He wondered if the end of the world was reasonable enough of an excuse to free him from a promise of an alcohol-free lifestyle. Donald chuckled to himself, and set the bottle-opener aside. Alice, who must have noticed the rare sound of her husband's laughter, finally drew herself away from her book.

"What is it?"

"Why did you pack this?" Donald asked Alice, avoiding her question. He held the baseball bat with both hands, practising his grip. He had never been a sportsman, but his father was always an avid fan, and had tried to teach Donald from a young age. His father stopped giving him lessons as soon as he realised that Billy, Donald's younger brother, was the true sportsman of the two. Billy had even played professionally. The baseball bat that he had given to his older brother had been the exact bat he had used to score a home run with decades ago. Donald rarely spoke of his brother and father, but Alice had never needed to ask her husband about them to know how he felt about them. The look on his face when he gazed at his little brother's bat said everything she needed to know and more.

Although he was never usually was the nostalgic type, it must have been a good few minutes before Donald sat that bat down again. These few good minutes of reminiscing had kept Donald from hearing the faint gargling sound of a walker approaching him from the side of the road. The walking corpse's bare feet made soft wet noises as they slapped against the road, leaving bloody footprints in its wake. Bloody saliva slipped from the walker's open (perhaps even broken, it was difficult to tell) jaw. The sounds of the upright corpse finally registered with Donald when it made a loud cry that sounded as though the creature was gargling marbles, but by then its cold dead hands were already wrapped firmly around Donald's neck, and the creature was going in for the kill. Donald had fallen back, right into the undead creature's grasp. It snapped its rotten teeth at his neck, but Donald was doing his best to keep his neck bite-free, wriggling out of the monster's grasp. He fell backwards, and now the walker was on top of him. Donald's limited strength was all that was keeping the nightmarish figure and its venomous bite at bay. Donald wanted to scream for his wife, but all the adrenaline that was now the only thing fuelling him was focused on getting this pile of meat off him. But it wasn't enough. Donald could feel himself losing control. Just when he was sure the creature was going to dig his teeth into him, in a flurry of blood, the walker was thrown from him like a ragdoll. Alice dropped the bloody baseball bate by Donald's feet.

"Are you glad I packed this now?" Alice asked her husband, knowing the answer. Although she was smiling, Donald could see from where he was lying that she was clearly shaking.

Donald picked up the bat as he got back on his feet and dusted himself off. He took a quick glance at the zombie, trying not to think about who it had been before. Although its bloody injuries had made the zombie hard to recognise as another human being, it was clearly female. Through the blood, Donald could still make out a gleaming wedding ring on the girls hand, and he bowed his head. Donald turned his attention quickly from the creature's remains to his wife. This was the first time Alice had been forced to put one of those monsters out of their misery. Usually, if the two were ever forced to, it would be Donald who would do the ugly deed. Donald knew this was something he would have to face eventually, but he didn't know how to justify murdering another human being to his wife. Instead, he just smiled at Alice's jest, which she had most likely made to gloss over the fact that she just bashed-in the brains of someone who was once just like her. Alice did not return her husband's hearty grin. Her face had dropped. Alice looked horrified. At first, Donald was sure that the realisation that she had just taken a life had finally hit her all at once, and that it was tearing her up. But it was something else entirely that had taken Alice's breath away, made her skin crawl, and made her turn pale white. It was something behind Donald.

Donald knew what was waiting for him before he turned. He tightened his grip on the bat, and span himself around. There, waiting for him, was the walker that was refusing to fie, its lower jaw now hanging from its face. Now, both of Donald's hands were on the bat, and his eye was on the ball. As he tightened his grip, exhaled, and prepared to score a home run, for a moment, he was a young boy, practising his aim with his father. With two strikes against him and one chance left, he promised his father that he was going to make this one count. He made the same promise again to his wife under his breath, tightened his breath, exhaled, and threw everything he had against the walker as the bat wrapped itself around the walker's already battered head. Home run. The walker collapsed and slumped to the ground as Donald stopped in his tracks and caught his breath. His victory was short lived, however, when his wife's screams made him aware of the second walker that was now approaching Alice. The zombie, this one a male, had Alice trapped against the RV, its terrifying features keeping her from daring to move. Donald was ready to step in, having discovered a heroic and macho side in him after taking care of the last zombie. But what stopped Donald in his tracks, preventing him from doing what he needed to do, was not the high-pitched cry of the cannibalistic walker desperate to feat on human flesh, it was the wedding ring that still sat nicely upon his finger, matching the ring belonging to the walker that attacked Donald that could only have been his wife. The tragedy kept Donald from moving, and for a moment, Alice thought it was all over. After all of the situations they had made it out of together, they would meet their end here. Alice wasn't prepared to give up just yet. She screamed for her husband. But it wasn't Alice's cries that woke Donald from his seemingly endless trance; it was the scream of a single bullet that tore its way through the zombie's skull, spraying blood across Alice and giving her husband the wakeup call he required. The zombie fell to the ground limply with a thud.

Donald searched for the source of the shot, and quickly found it walking towards him from the opposite end of the road, rifle in hand. The woman was tall, with brown hair and a rifle in both hands. A duffel bag was slouched across her back and her rifle was still smoking from her shot that showed accuracy, skill and a lot of practice. She struck Donald as a hunter who'd survived on her own through this nightmare, but Donald stopped thinking so hard about who she was when he came to realise how beautiful she was. Her hair shone in the glow of the sun, her arms that carried the rifle were perfectly slender, and her lips seemed, as far as he could tell, very kissable. She was wearing combat trousers and a tank top that was fairly low cut, but Donald stopped examining that area when he noticed his wife pick up on where his eyes were going. It didn't take long for the woman, whom Donald had now decided was more like a girl, to reach the two, who still hadn't been given enough time to allow what had just happened to full sink in.

"You should be more careful. If you're going to be traveling around like this, you can't let them surround you so easily." The woman sounded like she was giving orders to soldiers on a battlefield. Her voice was lower than Donald expected.

"We broke down. I didn't see either of them," Donald replied, trying to come across as not completely useless.

"Donald, don't be so rude," Alice told he husband off, although he wasn't sure what for. "You saved both of us. We can't thank you enough." Donald realised what his wife was trying to say, and nodded in agreement.

"It was nothing, really." The woman was being modest. Donald kept on nodding. She gave him a strange look, and when Donald realised he was still nodding like a bobble-head, he stopped himself and started to turn read like an embarrassed schoolboy who was still learning how to talk to girls.

There was an awkward silence until Alice finally made another attempt to break the ice. "I'm Alice, by the way. You've already met my husband, Donald, the klutz." This angered Donald slightly, especially considering he had moments ago tricked himself into thinking he was a macho hero. But when the woman laughed at Alice's joke, he turned his frown into a smile.

"Nice to meet you, Alice. Donald. My name's Lilly." The woman, calling herself Lilly, offered one of them her hand. Donald lunged in to take it, and smiled a warm smile as he shook it.


	2. Episode I - Chapter Two

Episode I - Choices We Make

Chapter Two - For Clementine

They have spotter her. Clementine's heart stops as one of the strangers turns to the other. She wants to cry out to the two of them, and ask them for help. But she knows she can't. She knows because Lee told her himself, moments before he died. Just thinking about Lee, or her parents, causes tears to well in the corners or her eyes. She wipes away the tears from her eyes for the sixth time that day. The last time she started to cry, it had been in Savannah, and had attracted the attention of a nearby walker. Clementine tried to shoot it, but got the same feeling she always got when she tried to shoot a walker. That feeling that kept her from pulling that trigger, and taking a life. She thought that after shooting the stranger that took her from Lee, it would get easier. But she had decided that the man who took her, and tried to hurt Lee, deserved to die more than any of the walkers they had faced so far. To her, the walkers were, and always will be innocent. In some ways, the cannibalistic undead monsters that had tried to eat Clementine's flesh at every turn were more innocent than a lot of living people she had encountered on her travels with Lee. Which made her think back to the two strangers she was faced with now. She could only see the silhouettes of the two people looking down on her from a hill not too far away. It was close enough for Clementine to be able to make out one of the strangers take out a gun from the back of their trousers. Clementine's heart started to beat again like never before, and she was reminded of what it felt like to be alive.

"You're strong, Clem," Lee struggled to tell Clementine in-between breaths. "You… You can do anything."

"But… I'm little," Clem was insisting to Lee, tears filling her eyes all over again. She couldn't let him leave her. She wouldn't. She was certain she wasn't ready to be alone yet.

"Doesn't mean nothin'. You're going to see bad stuff, but it's okay," Lee explained to a tearful Clem with his final breaths, moments before telling her to leave him and let him die.

Clem's memories of Lee are all that give her hope as she faces death again, this time without Lee at her side. She holds her breath as she hides behind the tree, hoping the strangers missed her swift move. But a part of her hopes they stay, that they find her, because Clementine can't shake the part of her that is thinking these people could help her. Clementine also can't shake the side of her that tells her the last time she trusted someone who helped her, it got Lee killed. She lies there as still as she can manage, and the tears return.

"Are you sure it was her?"

"Who else could it have been?"

Omid and Christa have been searching desperately for Clementine for almost an entire day now. They got back to the train quicker than expected. For a long time, they feared they had made it back to quickly, and doubled back to find Lee and Clementine. Searching the outskirts of town to no avail, they began to fear that Lee was unsuccessful. But on their way back to the train, Omid noticed something.

"It had to have been her. It had to have been," Omid insisted. He could sense Christa becoming more and more hopeless as they counted the hours. She had made a promise to Lee, and he knew how much it would crush her if she had broken it.

"But where's Lee?" Christa asks, worried she already knows the answer.

"I don't know," Omid admits. As he realises he has lot the girl, Omid notices Christa is losing hope again.

"Maybe they're both at the train already. Maybe they're both there waiting for us."

"We tried that already. If they'd have made it out of Savannah we'd have seen them. Unless maybe- ARRGGH!" Omid is struck by a wrenching pain in his right leg that cuts off his train of thought. He lowers himself to the ground and gasps as his leg starts to bleed again. A cloud of blood is filling his bandages, but Omid can only watch. "The wound – I think it's re-opened."

"Dammit. I knew you shouldn't be up on your feet like this. We should never have left Savannah," Christa insists as she removes Omid's bandages with great care.

"Did you miss the army of walkers back there? Because I'm pretty sure leaving was the right thing to do," Omid replies, clenching his teeth as Christa unwraps the bandages that have now stuck to his bloody wound that, through all the chaos, has been sorely neglected.

Clementine hears the voices coming from just a few feet away. She wants to turn and face them, but she can't bring herself to move. What if they take her away? Like the stranger at The Marsh House. She can't leave Savannah yet. Clementine thinks of all the people she mustn't leave behind; Ben, Kenny, Molly and Christa and Omid. That's when Clementine remembers what Lee told her to do before he left her.

"Find Omid… and… Christa," Lee is using all the strength he has left to utter these final words to Clementine. His voice is hoarse, and he is struggling to keep his eyes open and his head up, but Clementine refuses to take his eyes off him. "They're outside of town… by the train. You remember how to get back there?"

"Yes," Clementine reassures him, but she isn't sure she does. She realises she can't let Lee down now.

"Good. They'll take good care of you."

All at once, Clementine remembers. She remembers what Lee told her to do and where to go. She remembers that she has to find Christa and Omid. And when she hears one of the strangers mention her Lee, she is confident she has found her way back, and steps out to show herself to Christa and Omid.

Omid is biting his tongue so hard he thinks he can taste blood at one point as Christa removes the last of his bandages to reveal the bloody mess that is his right thigh. He looks away as soon as he sees it. He can't bear to look. He was never much of an active person, but in this world, a life as a cripple means no life at all.

"We need to get you back to the camp," Christa tells him, worried that his injury has only gotten worse.

"You seriously want to go back? I'm not sure about those people."

"What choice do we have? We need to get you off your feet. Then I'll keep looking for Clementine."

"Not on your own you won't."

"I can't do this with you, Omid. You're slowing me down. You're useless!" Christa yells at Omid, who now looks distraught. He looks down at his broken useless leg, and for a moment considers the idea that Christa may be right. When he looks back up, Christa is in tears.

"I'm sorry, Omid. This is my fault," This is the first time Omid has seen Christa cry during this entire nightmare. "I promised Lee, and I let him down."

Omid is lost for words. At first, he wonders if Christa has been bottling up these tears for the past three months, and this is some way of letting it all out, or if her love for Clementine really is that great. He would rather Christa blame him than herself. He feels truly useless as Christa cries in front of him, and he has nothing to say. No evidence that things will get better. No glimmer of hope or remedy. Until he spots something emerge from the tree in front of him. What he sees makes Omid smile that goofy grin of his that Christa knows so well from ear to ear.

"What? What is it?" Christa asks as she dries her eyes. She turns and sees Clementine standing there. "Oh, thank God." She leaves Omid flat on his back as she goes to embrace the poor nine year old girl. When she hugs Clementine, she realises Clem is crying, but Christa thinks nothing of it, because she is crying too.


	3. Episode I - Chapter Three

Episode One: Choices We Make

Chapter Three: Hunting Party

Coach has already spotted Alex and Johnny before the latter gives him the signal. He is relieved to see the two, even though he can already see they have returned empty-handed again. Coach wants to break the news to Tom, who is now chopping wood to keep himself from thinking about how hungry he is, despite his stomach's tendency to remind him through repeated sequences of grumbling and moaning that Coach has mistaken for the moans of one of the undead twice already.

Tom was in his late forties, and a number of grey hairs invading his otherwise dark hair were starting to show it. He was a stocky guy with a long face that often struggled to make a smile. He dressed like he was older than he was usually wearing dungarees and a baseball cap to hide his greys. He and his family were the first to find the hilltop and turn it into a fortified safe haven. With his experience in renovation, Tom was able to setup the camp in no time.

Tom's belly cries for something other than tinned fruits, and he is reminded of the number of things he would be willing to do for a succulent piece of meat, dipped in gravy, with a side of golden roast fluffy potatoes, and maybe a strong glass of wine to wash it down. Tom realises he is starting to drool, and wipes his mouth before Coach mistakes him for a walker, and drives an axe through his skull.

Luke was a big guy and a hell of a fighter, earning him the nickname "Coach" in this little community. He was black with a buzz cut that made his head look as round as his gut. He wore a tracksuit that Tom couldn't believe people actually made in his size.

Coach could be simple-minded at times, but he wasn't unintelligent by any means, he just forgot things. Important things. Twice, he had fallen asleep on watch, and one of the times he let in a walker. No one was hurt, thankfully. But Tom wasn't happy. He often gave Coach a hard time, but it was only ever because he knew Coach was brighter than most people thought. Tom was still staring into space, thinking about the ever-so satisfying sound beef made when it was flipped on a piping hot grill, when Coach called his name for the third time, this time a little louder. Tom snapped out of it, and then he saw them.

Johnny and Alex went to school together, and graduated together. Before corpses started walking around, they worked together. And now, they were fighting for their lives together. Their birthdays were only a couple of days apart, and people often described them as being like brothers. If it hadn't have been for their differences in looks, they could have passed for siblings. Alex was a skinny boy with blonde shoulder-length hair. He always wore sports clothing, baseball jackets and such, but never played any sports of any kind. Johnny was a short lad with black hair combed upwards. His skin was soft, and he was never seen wearing anything other than his black leather jacket (even in this warm weather) over a plain white shirt. He reminded Alex of a cartoon character who always looked the same.

Alex had been dreading what Tom would make of the fact they hadn't brought anything back with them, so it was no surprise to Johnny that he let out an audible sigh when he saw Tom approach them. "Here we go," he muttered under his breath.

"What the hell do you call this?" Tom demanded of the two, not in the least satisfied with the two's results after their two hours out in the woods.

"There's nothing out there," Johnny quickly stepped in to defend Alex. "The walkers must be scaring them off. There are a lot of those things out there."

"And there are a lot of us here – and we're starving!" Tom had already begun to raise his voice. Alex and Johnny constantly disappointing him often did a number on Tom. The shouting that followed usually landed him with a sore throat, a throbbing headache, and sometimes even breathlessness. Alex wondered how soon it would be before he suffered another heart attack. He could see Johnny was thinking the same thing, as he began to test Tom's temper some more.

"We're not risking our lives just because you refuse to eat tinned fruits and vegetables!"

"Tinned _fruits_, son. _Fruits_. We ran out of vegetables last night. We need meat! We're carnivores, just like those things out there!" Tom pointed, although he wasn't sure what at. He certainly hoped there wasn't one of "those things" approaching the camp.

Johnny got some joy out of the fact that Tom just compared himself to one of the walkers. _A walker would be easier to get along with_, he thought to himself.

"You're not coming back in until you have something for us," Tom went on, tightening his grip on the axe. He had no intention of using it, but as Johnny continued to test him, Tom feared he might break it in half.

Johnny could see that Coach wanted to step in, but he was just as scared of Tom as he and Alex were in times like these. His bottom lip was trembling, and he was trying not to look any of them in the eye.

Johnny realised Alex was about to jump in, and stopped him from making anything worse when he said "Fine, we'll be back." At this point, he had lost all interest he had in rejoining the rest of the camp. He knew the best thing that could possibly come out antagonising Tom even further would be to give him the investable heart-attack that was already long overdue for him. Now that he thought about it, Johnny wished he had stayed.

Coach watched Alex and Johnny leave together and return to the woods to waste another hopeless couple of hours searching for food. He was already regretting not stepping in when Tom refused to let the two back onto the camp, he knew he would have to make amends for that soon. But for now, he was focusing on Tom, who was shaking from raising his voice so high. People often misunderstood, Tom never _enjoys_ shouting at anyone. The camp seem to think that he gets a kick out of people being cared of him, but if anything it's dangerous for someone with his condition to be so pent up all the time.

Coach approached Tom, who is still breathing heavily after his outburst. He continues to watch Alex and Johnny walk in the other direction, and almost jumps out of his skin when Coach pats his shoulder. "You need to be careful, man," he warns Tom. "There's gonna come a time when they stop being scared of you, and they gonna do somethin' stupid."

"Let 'em try," Tom replies. "They'll only get themselves killed." Tom is now looking straight at him, as though he's staring into his soul. "I'll do anything to protect my family, Coach. Anything." Coach had never considered himself afraid of Tom, but when he stared into those cold grey eyes, he understood what Tom's words truly meant, and felt fear for the first time.

"Maybe we should try talking to his wife?"

"That would never do anything for us. What else is she gonna do other than support her husband. You thinks she'd dare do anything else? He probably beats her, the cold bastard." Johnny had put down every idea Alex had to deal with Tom that hadn't ended with a fight that made Johnny look like the alpha-male of the group. From the beginning, Alex had tried to avoid violence, but it was starting to look inevitable.

"I don't want to get kicked out of the camp, Johnny. Apart from Tom, those people are real friendly. And that new couple too, that showed up yesterday! Maybe they could help us?"

"If they come back, you mean?" Alex nodded. Johnny hated to act so cold, but they were living in a world where if someone hasn't been seen for over 24 hours, it was considered optimistic to think they were still alive.

"I'm just saying, we have it a lot better than some people. We're alive for starters. And don't forget we have-"

"Shhh…" Johnny signalled Alex to be quite, pressing his finger against his lip as he slowly approached something in the distance. The two cut through tall grass, brushing away the low-hanging branches as they moved silently through the woods that were becoming more and more unpredictable by the minute.

The walker was feasting upon a not so long dead stag. Its entrails had been yanked from its belly, spilling blood and organs across the grass. The animal had been torn to shreds by its unnatural predator, its organs cast aside by the beast with its jaws in its belly. The walker licked its lips as it dived in for another feast of flesh and blood. Alex almost felt wrong not hurling just at the mere sight of it, but he almost couldn't believe what he was seeing. It wouldn't have been like retching over a gore-infested horror movie - what he was seeing in front of him was very real.

"Shame…" Johnny had already raised his hunting rifle before Alex could bear to look at the blood-fest in front of him. He fired a single shot that brought down the walker. The bullet fired out the opposite end of the creature's skull, and for a moment, Alex thought the walker had survived the shot. But sure enough, the zombie fell limply to the ground. "That could've lasted us for a week," Johnny finished. Alex barely heard him, his ears were still ringing from the shot.

When Johnny approached the walker and the stag's remains, the amount of meat left on the poor animal was the first thing he noticed. The thing could have lasted the group maybe even as long as two full weeks if they'd have taken enough care. Johnny had never eaten stag, but he imagined it couldn't taste too different to beef or horse. Johnny had been deprived of meat for far too long. He never thought of himself as someone who would resort to cannibalism, but he decided in that moment that, give him some fries and some sauce to go with it, he would happily eat human meat. It would at least make a difference from the tinned beans he had been forced to dine on every night, which were starting to give him gas.

"You know we can't eat that, right?" Alex tells Johnny, who is still miles away thinking about how human meat tastes, and if it would go with ketchup.

Now Johnny is thinking about something else entirely. He knows, as Alex just reminded him, that the meat in front of him is likely poisonous now, with the walker having set its rotted venomous teeth deep into it. But now he has an idea. It's an idea that could save both of them, and perhaps even the group. But it's one so disgusting, so evil and so atrocious, that he can't say it aloud. "You remember how I told you that Tom put me in charge of serving the food tonight?" is all Johnny says to Alex. It's all he needs to say, as he can tell by the change in Alex's face that he knows exactly what he means. Now, Alex is looking at Johnny as though he doesn't recognise him anymore. Johnny realises he needs to explain himself, but before he gets a chance, he notices another walker, obviously drawn to them by the sound of the gunshot, approaching from behind Alex.

"DOWN!" He screams at Alex, who is still oblivious to the walker approaching from behind. Instead he turns around, facing the walker. When he sees it, he covers his eyes, as if the zombie is something straight out of a nightmare that can't really hurt him. But it can, and it's getting closer to Alex now. Johnny realises his fingers have turned to butter as he struggles to get a decent grip on his rifle whilst the chaos continues.

Johnny jumps at the sound of a gunshot from not too far away. For a moment, he fears he might have shot himself in the foot. But he sees the walker tumble and eventually drop, and realises that someone just saved their asses. This someone then appears out of the treeline facing them both. The woman is accompanied by an elderly couple. Johnny has never seen her before, but even he is already starting to fall in love.


	4. Episode I - Chapter Four

Episode One: Choices We Make

Chapter Four: The Camp

I've had some problems using the website in the past week, so I apologise if there have been any problems in accessing new chapters. But, as always, thanks for reading! Hopefully, things will run a little bit more smoothly. And, if there is a high enough demand for it, I may upload the next chapter early!

"Well isn't she just the cutest thing?" Donna said warmly as she mussed Clementine's hair, although she wasn't sure she wanted her husband would care to answer. Although she knew he would never deny hospitality to a child, she hadn't forgotten his wishes to keep the camp small. When they first arrived, it had just been the three of them. Tom, Donna and their beautiful daughter, Lisa. Johnny, Alex and Coach had all shown up almost a month later, when the three of them were starting to run out of food. Tom, realising they would need people capable of hunting for food and protecting the camp, welcomed the three of them. But with the arrival of Christa, Omid and now young Clementine, the camp was starting to get crowded.

"Where did you find her?" Donna asked, realising she had been ignored by her sulking husband.

"She was on her way out of Savannah when we saw her. She made it out of the city all on her own," Christa gave Clementine's hand a squeeze, trying to find some way of telling her how brave she thought she was without saying it outright. But her words only made Clementine think back to Lee and her parents.

"Did you see anyone else? Had anyone else made it out of the city?" Donna asked, still hopeful that the city didn't belong entirely to the dead.

"No. There's just us," Christa replied with regret.

"And that's the way it's going to stay!" Tom finished, ending the conversation and making his thoughts clear.

"It was nice meeting you, Clementine," Donna told Clementine politely before following her husband back to her tent.

"Are you sure we're safe here?" Clementine asked Christa, starting to doubt this camp was the safe haven the two had made it out to be.

"No one here's going to hurt you, sweetie. And Johnny and Alex are working on getting us some food."

This didn't seem to help. Clementine still wouldn't look Christa in the eye, her head still bowed. "I saw my parents in Savannah. I…" Clementine couldn't say anymore, but she didn't have to. From the girl's tears, Christa knew that her parents couldn't have survived.

"I'm never going to let that happen to you. Look at me, Clem. I promise I will protect you."

But Clementine was still searching for a solution in the dirt between her feet, refusing to look up. "That's what Lee said," she said, tears streaming down her face uncontrollably now.

"And he kept his promise, didn't he?" Christa pointed out, smiling at Clem. Clementine finally looked back at her, and gave her a half-smile back.

* * *

Birds clear their nests at the blast of a single gunshot. Once the ringing in her ears ceases, Lilly approaches her prey. Before the end of the world, it would have pained Lilly to see any harm come to such a beautiful animal. But the impossible had happened, and now they were living in a world that turned by a single rule: kill or be killed. Lilly had escaped death at many turns during her time battling the walking dead, and she wasn't about to succumb to starvation just because she was afraid to get her hands dirty. This hadn't been the first time she had taken a life to keep her own, either. But that was in the past now.

"Nice shot," Johnny commented, removing his fingers from his ears. He had only just fully gotten his hearing back after firing his rifle over a half hour ago, moments before he and Alex first met Lilly. Since they met her, Johnny had been going out of his way to compliment Lilly and engage her in conversation. At first, he thought he might've actually been in love, but now he was just curious as to where she came from, what her story was. She looked like someone who had seen a lot, and who wasn't exactly gun shy.

Alex sighed upon hearing another of Johnny's attempts to kiss Lilly's feet. Although he saw the intelligence in getting pally with the only person around here who knew how to use a gun properly. The stag looked untouched by walkers, which was a surprise. With the arrival of these new guests, it looked like their luck was finally starting to turn around. He could only hope that the arrival of more strangers wouldn't anger Tom. He considered that maybe Tom would allow someone capable of bringing the camp food entry to their little haven. Now Alex just had to find out what Donald and Alice, the elderly couple that Lilly appeared alongside, had to bring to the table. Alex didn't get the impression that Lilly knew the couple all too well, but they obviously had enough of a history to decide to stick together. Alex was about to ask Alice a question, when Johnny patted him on the shoulder. What Johnny then showed Alex made him want to stop in his tracks and ask him what was going through his head. Instead he let out a silent gasp as Johnny cautiously presented a piece of meat from the stag they found, half-eaten by a walker, reeking of the stench of death.

Alex already knew what Johnny was thinking before he asked, but he had to hear it from him, hoping it would make Johnny realise how crazy he sounded when he heard the plan aloud. He waited until Donald and Alice took them over and caught up to Lilly to help with the dead stag before he asked: "Are you insane?"

"Trust me, poisoning Tom is the last thing I want to do. But how do you think he's going to react to all these new faces?" Just hearing the word sends shivers through Alex.

"This will only make things worse. Johnny. You're talking about murdering someone." Alex knew this was Johnny's idea of a Plan B, but he also knew that Tom wouldn't give him any other choice but to use it.

"I'm doing this to protect us. I'm not asking you to have any part of it, just don't try and stop me from keeping us alive." Johnny stuffed the poisoned meat back in his pocket and left Alex's side.

Alice startled Alex when she asked approached his side. At first, he feared she might have overheard their conversation, but instead she asked: "This camp you mentioned before, is it safe from those _things_ out there." The elderly woman pulled a face when she spoke of the walkers. Alex thought about her question more than he'd though about anything else that day, it was the only thing keeping him from wanting to kick himself for giving Johnny the idea to poison Tom.

"Yeah it is," he final replied. "But it's not the walkers you have to worry about," he continued, watching Johnny as he helped Lilly and Donald lift the stag.

"You sent them back out there!?" Christa barked at Tom with disbelief. He had just explained that Alex and Johnny had already returned to camp, but had nothing to eat with them. He told Christa that he had sent the two boys back out of the safe zone as though he had done the right thing. A part of Christa understood why he had done it, she just couldn't imagine doing the same, even to protect Clementine.

"Those two boys had nothing. Nothing at all. I've given you people everything I have and all I've ever got in return is nothing but grief!" Tom talking negatively of the two boys had almost become a routine now. He liked having someone to blame for the fact that they were running out of food, despite the true blame lying with Coach for having such an appetite. But Tom wasn't about to get on bad terms with the only member of the group who could use a firearm.

"You sent them out there to die!" Christa was really testing Tom's limits now, and she should have known not to push him any further, but she had grown tired of him and his 'every man for himself' attitude.

"Well at least it'll mean a couple less mouths to feed!" Tom responded. His final comment had ended the conversation. Christa's jaw had dropped, and even Tom seemed surprised by what he had just said. He looked as though he was about to apologise, when his wife appeared and put a hand on his shoulder.

"They're back," Donna said. Tom wasn't sure how much she had heard, but by the empty look on her face, she had clearly heard enough.

"What the… FUCK!?" Tom cried as he marched towards the front of the camp, leaving his wife behind. Christa followed closely as, ahead of them, Johnny and Alex came into view. But when she realised they were not alone, Christa understood Tom's sudden outburst.

Johnny and Alex were accompanied by three strangers. Johnny, Donald and Lilly were carrying an entire stag between them. They dropped it in front of Coach's feet, who was guarding the camp, he nodded in approval.

"Well? Are you gonna tell me what the fuck this is!?" Tom barked at Johnny and Alex. The entire camp was watching now. Omid and Clementine had left their tent and were scanning the camp for Christa, whose eyes never left Tom. Donna and her daughter, Lisa, were also watching the scene unfold. All eyes were on Tom now, and everyone's hearts were in their throats. Except for one person.

It didn't take long for Lilly to step forward. Alex tried to utter some kind of warning to her, but he couldn't bring himself to say a word. "My name is Lilly," she started, and Tom's attention was finally on her. "I've been travelling on the road with Donald and Alice for a few weeks now, but we ran into some trouble. We brought gas, and a meal." She took a step back to give Tom a better look at the stag she caught whilst Donald and Alice presented a can of gas each. "We'd be willing to share it all, if we can join your camp." Lilly said confidently having had some time to practise what to say since Alex first told her about Tom and his distrust towards strangers.

Tom looked around him. All eyes were still on him, to his surprise. With one of his eyebrows raised and his nose turned up, he thought about Lilly's offer, but it didn't take him long to come to a final decision. "You can stay, but only for the night. We're not looking for new neighbours."

Even though nobody else said a word, it was very clear nobody was in agreement with Tom's decision. Christa clearly wanted to snap Tom out of whatever trance he was in that was now costing the camp a free meal. She finally stepped up. "Tom, these people are offering us food and gas. Two things we desperately need." Tom growled, muttering something under his breath.

"If you people have weapons, I'd also be willing to share some ammunition. If that doesn't work out, I consider myself to be a decent shot, and could help you defend this place, maybe even train each of you, given time." Lilly was getting desperate, but she wasn't letting is show. She wasn't about to let Donald and Alice be turned away, especially knowing how much they'd already been through.

"Christa, I'm hungry, can we let these people stay?" Clementine asked, appearing from thin air as far as Christa could tell.

"I'm working on it sweetie," Christa told Clementine reassuringly. Clementine then got a look at the strangers at camp. She saw the unfamiliar couple, exchanging a worried look between each other. And then she saw Lilly, and her heart sank. She grabbed Christa's hand tightly, biting her lip hard.


	5. Episode I - Chapter Five

Episode One: Choices We Make

Chapter Five: It Happened Fast

_Clementine_. After all this time, Lilly still hadn't forgotten the little girl's name. The girl made her think of Lee. He and Lilly had lived with each other for over three months. They had been through a lot together, and didn't always see eye-to-eye, but she remembered they were friends. Lilly sighed when she thought back to how her travels with Lee and the group had come to an end. She raised her head, and tried to force herself to look Clementine in the eye. But she couldn't, instead her eyes were on the camp's other settlers. That was when Lilly realised: Lee was nowhere to be found.

"If you're serious about your offer," Tom finally returned, "then I guess there's no harm in letting you stay, for now at least." Donna gave her husband a look of approval, but he must have thought she was being patronising, and he turned to return to his tent. Donald, Alice and Lilly had offered to share supplies like gas and ammunition with Tom and the group in return for a place on the camp, but they weren't sure whether it had been their generous offer that had convinced Tom, or if he had just finally grown tired of arguing. Judging by the way Tom slouched back to his tent, Lilly went for the latter.

The new camp dwellers, as well as Johnny and Alex, got settled back into camp once Tom returned to his tent. Lilly was the first one Christa became acquainted. She came to Christa, still looking around expecting a walker to appear out of thin air, whilst Clementine clutched to Omid beside her.

"I want to thank you. I know you did your best to convince your friend there to let us stay here - I appreciate that." Lilly shook Christa's hand, a notion that left Clementine confused, especially after the way Lilly had acted the last time they had been around each other. She hid further behind Omid, and continued to bite her lip until she tasted blood.

"He's not my friend, but you're welcome. Despite Tom's trust issues, the rest of us are always looking for other survivors, especially ones who can add something to the group like gas or ammunition." Christa warmed to Lilly quickly, until she noticed Clementine's concern.

"And food! I'm so hungry, I'll eat anything as long as it doesn't come in a tin!" Omid joked, but his attempts to break the ice were shot-lived when Clementine and Lilly caught each other's eyes. For a moment, Lilly looked sad, as though seeing Clementine had reminded her of something she'd tried to long forget – or someone.

"Look, Alice," Donald's eyes were fixated on a large vehicle parked in the corner of the camp, most likely to reinforce a weaker section of the fence protecting the camp. The fence surrounded the entire camp, minus the gap made for the front entrance that was around four meters wide, and the RV Donald was looking at was clearly keeping the camp's desperate safety measure strong, but he couldn't help but think it could do so much more. "It's an RV, just like the one we used to have. Remember how much good it did us before it broke down?" Donald had an idea but, just in case it was too good to be true, he didn't spell it out to his wife, who was almost without hope since they left Macon. "We have gas left, Alice."

"I know what you're trying to say, Donald. But what good is moving again? We might be able to make something good for ourselves here. And these are nice people, mostly anyway. We can't just abandon them, is what I'm trying to say." Alice hated to put a damper on her husband's hopes, but he hadn't given this camp a chance yet, and Alice was pretty sure they were safe here.

"Donald's right," Lilly said from behind both of them. She had obviously been listening for a good while. "Most of these people seem nice enough, but we have to do this on our own." Lilly thought back to the last time she travelled with a group, and how well that worked out for her – and her father. "We survived for a good few weeks out there on the road – just the three of us. Being in a group with other people – it just never works."

"Clementine, do you know that woman?" Christa asked Clementine softly after noticing her clam up so when Lilly first arrived at the camp.

Clementine was looking at her feet, searching for an answer. "No. I've never seen her before," she lied to Christa and Omid. All three of them were outside their tent. Omid was pacing up and down, killing time until Alex and Johnny were done preparing the food. He was worried, the two weren't exactly known for getting things right. Right now, Omid's mind wasn't in the right place. He was so fixated on worrying about whether the two boys would overcook or undercook their dinner and if what they were cooking was even safe to eat that he didn't notice that something had seriously scared Clementine.

"Then what's wrong?" Christa asked when she finally got sick of Omid's fidgeting. "Omid! Please, just sit down!"

Omid scurried back inside the tent, like a Fox caught in the headlights of a car. Christa sighed and then waited for an answer from Clementine.

"I just… I don't want things to go wrong again…" Clementine was avoiding making eye contact with Christa, worried she would ask her what she meant. Clementine was tired of telling her story to people, it just reminded her that, once upon a time, things weren't like the way they are now. And remembering the way things were, only made this nightmare all the more difficult to bear.

* * *

Night had come quickly. Lisa was already starting to fall asleep. Tom told Donna and his daughter that if they wanted to sleep, he would wake them when their dinner was ready. But Donna only stroked Lisa's hair as she slowly drifted away into sleep. Tom often envied Lisa's ability to still be able to sleep at night. He wondered if she could sleep so easily because she was only eight years old, and didn't truly understand what was going on out there, or if she had just gotten used to the idea of corpses walking around. Somehow, Tom doubted the latter, but he also knew that Lisa was old enough to understand the enormity and threat of the situation they had found themselves in. Sometimes, Tom feared that he had lost his daughter the day the outbreak started, and he had just been left with the shell of his little girl. When he stared into her once bright blue and glistening eyes that Tom used to be able to see his own reflection in, he was now met with nothing more than a bottomless pit of emptiness that showed no emotion, and no sign of life.

Tom left the tent when his daughter finally drifted to sleep. As he made his way to the RV to dig out some new blankets, he found a small group of camp dwellers huddled around the RV, almost whispering, suggesting they didn't want to be heard. "What is this?" he asked the three of them, he counted them as he tried to remember their names.

"Tom, could you get this RV up and running again?" Lilly asked, trying her best not to rub Tom the wrong way.

"With a full tank of gas I could probably get her back on the road, but I don't know why I'd want to…" Tom was confused by the question, but when he noticed Donald and Alice were carrying a tank of gas each, he realised where Lilly was going with this.

Omid was woken by shouts coming from across the camp. He knew who's they were right away, what confused him was the fact that he couldn't even remember falling asleep. He wondered if he had missed dinner, and rushed out of the tent. He noticed the majority of the camp had gathered outside Toms tent to find the source of the commotion, but no one was surprised to discover that Tom was arguing with someone once again. Omid looked around, and noticed Johnny and Alex stood between Coach and Christa. Donna was also there, so who was Tom shouting at?

"We're safe here! We spent days turning this hilltop into Fort Knox, and those things out there haven't given us any trouble since!" Tom declared, although not everyone watching the spat play out would entirely agree, and he knew it.

"But what happens when they do? What happens when someone gets bitten? We're much safer on the road, where we can keep moving! Staying hidden up here is not a long-term solution." Lilly explained. She was making her plan up as she went along, but she knew staying here wouldn't serve any of them well.

"And you think hitting the road is? What happens when we run out of gas? What then? Do you think everyone here wants to pile into an RV every night to sleep? We stay here, and they'll find us eventually…"

"And who exactly are 'they'?" Lilly asked.

"The Government are working on cleaning this mess up as we speak. They've probably cleared out half of Georgia by now! They'll be here soon…" Tom explained bluntly. His reasoning, however, had left the rest of the group silent.

Lilly was stunned. _He still thinks rescue is coming_. It had been a long time since Lilly had even considered the possibility of any kind of Government still existing. She even remembered the exact moment she had lost any hope of ever being rescued. This was a nightmare that none of them were going to soon wake up from, but Tom obviously hadn't been able to get that through his thick skull.

Lilly looked around her. Everyone was silent, avoiding eye contact with Lilly or Tom. It suddenly hit her. These people were afraid of Tom. She looked back at Tom, this time with hateful eyes. As she looked at him with daggers, Lilly finally said "No one is coming for us…"

This shook Tom to his core. He looked as though he was ready to backhand Lilly, she certainly wouldn't put it past him, but a loud gunshot stopped him in his tracks.

Clementine screamed. The intensity of the situation between Lilly and Tom had put her heart in her throat, and she thought the worst when she heard that gunshot. She was relieved, however, when she saw Coach wave at her, presenting a pistol in his right hand. She could see the dead walker from here. A hatchet had been buried in its skull, but apparently that hadn't stopped it from crossing the outskirts of Savannah.

"Coach!" Johnny screamed at the large silhouette by the gate to the camp. "What did I tell you? No guns!" Johnny snatched the gun from Coach, angry that he had forgotten what he told him so quickly. It took some effort, but Johnny eventually pulled the hatched from the walker's skull, although he ended up with blood sprayed across his shirt. He handed the hatchet to Coach, and left as quickly as he had appeared. He was on his way back to the campfire where he had left Alex to cook dinner, but when he saw the rest of the group huddled together by the RV, he could tell something was wrong. When he heard Donna's screams, he knew right away what was happening.

It had happened so fast. When Clementine looked back from the walker to Tom, he was on the floor, breathing heavily, his teeth clenched and his face the colour of a plum. He was sweating now, and his hand was in Donna's, his fingernails were digging into her hand so deep they were starting to draw blood. Clementine couldn't see past all of the people huddled around Tom, but she could see enough to know what was wrong with him. She turned to see Lilly, who had dropped her gun and left in a hurry, her head in her hands.

"He's having another heart attack," Johnny told so directly to Alex instead of beating around the bush. It didn't take long for him to recount the events that had transpired that night. He told Alex about the gunshots that had brought him there, and how Tom had then dropped to the floor, struggling to breath properly. "He's out of control. He looked like he was ready to kick Lilly and her group out of the camp." Johnny was still catching his breath from running from the camp entrance back to the campfire, where Alex was still preparing the Stag for cooking. Fat ran between Alex's fingers, making Johnny cringe as he reached the conclusion of his story. "It won't be long before he decides that we are the weak link in this group, and he decides to kick us out."

Alex shivered, but it wasn't the night's cold that had sent shivers down his spine, it was the words coming from his friend. He knew he and Johnny would not last long as members of the group, especially with food running so short, and much more capable survivors beginning to show up, who would have so much more to offer to the camp. But his friend's words were so final and definite, Alex wanted to put his head in his hands and cry, because he knew what it meant Johnny would have to do.


	6. Episode I - Chapter Six

Episode One: Choices We Make

Chapter Six: Who We Were Before

Clementine didn't understand why Lilly was crying when she saw her sat outside her tent, tears running from her eyes as she wrapped her arms around her legs. She was nestled in herself, her head in her lap quietening the sound of her tears. But Clementine could still hear, she knew the sound so well now after all. She approached her slowly, taking one step after another, but becoming more and more afraid of the person she was approaching as she did so. Even if Lilly did look like a teenage girl who had been stood up on prom night, it still didn't change the fact that she had murdered someone in front of Clementine. She wondered if that was why Lilly was so upset, but then she remembered the cold empty look Lilly had in her eyes after she pulled the trigger, not even phased by the fact that she had just taken a human life.

She right beside her now. Clementine hoped she hadn't sneaked up on Lilly, as her intentions were not to frighten her; something else had done that. Clementine got down on her knees next to her, she didn't take her eyes off of her. "Why are you crying?" she asked her, unsure of what else to say.

For a while, Clementine wasn't sure whether or not Lilly had heard her. She was about to repeat her question, when Lilly lifted her head out of her lap and began to wipe away her tears. With the back of her hand, she brushed away her tears that had fallen down her face. When she was done, she looked at Clementine, and another tear came streaming down her cheek. She wiped it away, and tried to say something. Her mouth hung open for a few seconds as she tried to think what to say to the little girl, but in the end, she only managed a petty croak. There was a frog in her throat, but it was gone by the time Lilly had cleared her throat. Having thought of nothing better to say, Lilly simply told Clementine: "I miss my Dad."

Clementine had no idea how to respond to that. After what she did, Clementine had picture Lilly as some kind of monster. Not like the walkers, but like the bad people that existed before corpses started walking, like the Bandits, the St. Johns, and the stranger that took her from Lee. In the end, Clementine said: "I miss my Daddy too," it was all she could think to say.

* * *

Dinner was served. It had taken the two of them hours to skin, cook and dish out the Stag Lilly had caught out in the woods, but it was finally ready to eat. Separately, Johnny had cooked the rotted piece of meat he and Alex had found on their hunt before Lilly had shown up. He had taken it from a deer a walker had already started feasting on, meaning the meat was very likely to be infected with whatever was turning them into walking corpses. The plan was for Johnny and Alex to feed everyone at camp, whilst feeding Tom this piece of meat that would hopefully kill him. The meat was cooked brown, and gave away no signs of being infected. Like everyone else's juicy pieces of meat, Tom's was served with vegetables and gravy that Alice had made for the group using a mix she had somehow kept handy for so long. The meat, that would ultimately be a death sentence for Tom, couldn't have been told apart from everybody else's, to the point where Johnny had almost mistakenly served it to Clementine. He remembered just after having handed the plate to her. She was just about to dig in to the hot meal when Johnny made an excuse to take it back.

"Uh oh, I see blood," Johnny giggled nervously as he took the plate back from Clementine. "You can't eat that, Alex obviously didn't cook it properly. I'll find you a better-cooked piece and be right back." Clementine could have sworn she hadn't seen any blood, but she didn't bother arguing. She was so hungry now, she would wait another ten minutes before going to dish up a meal herself.

With the infected meal in his hand, Johnny approached Tom's tent. He could hear high-pitched giggling from inside, obviously coming from Lisa, Tom's daughter. Johnny was beginning to have second thoughts when Tom appeared from around the corner.

"Oh, it's you," Tom mumbled as he zipped up his trousers. Then his eyes found the meal in Johnny's hands. "So, is that for me?" Tom was licking his lips.

Johnny was giggling again, the pressure was getting to him. He stopped when Tom looked at him suspiciously. "Sure is," he said with an awkward grin. He handed the plate to Tom carefully as his hands began to tremble.

Tom notice Johnny's hands were shaking, and grabbed the hot plate before he dropped it.

Alex appeared behind Johnny with two more plates of food, intended for Donna and Lisa. The two of them had obviously smelled dinner by now as they both came out of the tent for their food hurriedly. Johnny smiled at them both as Alex handed them their meals. "Be careful, those plates are hot," Alex said with a warm smile. Johnny wondered if that was his idea of some kind of sick joke. Then, his heart sank as he saw Tom take the meat on his plate and piled it on his daughter's plate.

"What are you doing!?" Johnny asked Tom, louder than he had intended. Even Alex looked surprised.

"Feeding my daughter – what does it look like?" Tom replied. "She hasn't eaten in so long, but she's such a good little girl. She deserves it, don't you sweetie?" He mussed Lisa's hair as she cut the infected meat with her knife and fork.

Alex's eyes were on Johnny, he was waiting for him to act. But Johnny was still.

"You should eat some meat, Tom" Johnny finally said. "You're going to need it. Like you said: we're carnivores after all!" Johnny giggled again, but nothing about this situation was funny at all.

Tom had ignored Johnny. He smiled at Lisa as she took the first bite of the meat. Johnny closed his eyes and sighed as Alex returned to the tent with his hand over his mouth.

Johnny returned to his tent to find Alex pacing up and down outside, whispering something to himself. Johnny couldn't hear completely, but at one point, he thought he heard him whisper "it's not my fault". He stopped this when he noticed Johnny had returned. He was on him within seconds.

"What the fuck happened back there?" Alex asked, still struggling to stay still.

"It wasn't my fault. How was I supposed to know he would give up his share?"

"You let that little girl eat infected meat. That stuff will kill her! Why didn't you do something?" Alex was sweating now. He looked flushed, ready to pass out.

"There was nothing I could do. Besides, we don't know that it'll do anything to her. She could be fine!" Johnny was trying to be reassuring, but his being so calm in a situation like this, where a little girl's life was on the line, only scared Alex more.

"I don't know. I don't know…" Alex put his head in his hands and fell into Johnny. He embraced Alex, holding him in his arms where Alex would have been happy to fall asleep.

"It's okay. I'm here," Johnny told Alex as he held him tight. "I'll always be here…"

* * *

Clementine couldn't sleep. So many thoughts were flowing through he mind as she walked across the camp. She was starting to get the hang of the camp's basic layout; the location of her tent, the entrance and where she should go if she needed to pee. But that night she decided to take a walk to the other side of the camp, near Johnny and Alex's tent, just before the edge of the hilltop the camp had been fortified on top of. She approached the edge, although she couldn't see how high up she was (or how far she could fall) due to her small height. The fence before her seemed strong, and she put its strength to the test as she began to climb. The fence was only a couple of meters high, but it stood much taller than her. Clementine climbed a couple of feet off of the ground, high enough to be able to peek over the fence. What she saw from her new perspective made her gasp, and sent a cold and deep shiver down her spine. She swallowed her fear, and tried to count the walkers below, crowding together and slowly surrounding the hilltop. She shuffled across the fence a few metres – they were everywhere. There were too many to count. The darkness would have engulfed many of them too, meaning there will have been more than she could even see; an army hiding in the darkness – waiting. Clementine screamed when something grabbed her shirt. She had been lifted off of her feet, and she began to kick and fidget, trying to break free of the walker's grip.

"Shhh! Be quite!" Johnny said. He released his grip on Clementine and she pushed him away, only just realising that he wasn't one of them.

"I'm sorry. I thought…" Clementine wasn't sure she needed to explain the rest. Johnny was shirtless, wearing only a pair of jogging pants. "Those things… They're everywhere," Clementine said as she turned back to the fence, praying that she wouldn't see a walker climbing over it.

"I know. They've surrounded the entire camp…" Clementine was already shaking, and Johnny didn't want to scare the girl even more, but he had to let her know what had to happen next. "…But we can't tell anybody."

* * *

Lilly found Tom and Donna outside their tent. Donna was changing the bandages on Tom's hands. Tom's blood had dried causing the dressing to glue to his hands. He winced as she peeled away layer after layer until she found his wound. Donna threw the bloody bandages into the fire and studied Tom's wounds. His hands had almost fully healed, Lilly saw only a pair of small scars that would fade away over time. Tom rubbed his hands and flexed his fingers – and then he saw Lilly.

"Looks like those cuts have healed nicely," Lilly said whilst almost managing her best effort at a smile. Donna, noticing her effort, gave her a warm smile back. But Tom mumbled something under his breath and turned away, like a shy little boy.

"I wanted you to know I'm sorry. It's my fault you had a heart attack," Lilly admitted, though she couldn't look either of them in the eye. "Maybe you're right. Maybe someone will find us."

"It would be a fucking miracle," Tom finally uttered. His wife gave him a look of daggers. "But thank you, Lilly. I appreciate that." For a second, Tom looked defeated. He looked as though it didn't matter what he thought; that all hope was already lost. And for a second, Lilly agreed.

"Someone _will_ find us," Tom went on. "They just need to find us before it's too late…" He flexed his fingers again, glad to be free of those horrid bandages that were starting to keep him prisoner.

"What do you mean?" Lilly asked, shaken by Tom's words. Although she asked him, she was pretty sure she already knew what Tom meant. He didn't reply to Lilly's question, but she got her answer when she saw Lisa walking from her tent, slowly approaching the three of them.

Donna was still busy looking for her husband's medication when her daughter approached. "Hey honey, are you still up?" she asked Lisa, although she didn't turn to look at her just yet. When Lisa didn't respond, Lilly turned to check on her. What she saw made her gasp, and finally Lisa had both her parent's absolute attention.

Lisa stood there with her thumb in her mouth. The reddest blood Lilly had ever seen was smeared across her clothes and face, and it continued to drip from her mouth. She took her thumb out of her mouth as she tried to say something. "Mommy…" was all she could manage in a voice quitter than a mouse. When she opened her mouth to talk, a stream of blood fell from her mouth, muffling her words.

Donna ran to her daughter in time to catch her as Lisa collapsed into her arms. Lilly could see that the little girl was shaking uncontrollably. She was choking on her own blood. Although she could hear Donna shouting commands at her, none of them processed with her, her mind was completely blank. But when she saw that the life begin to leave the little girl's eyes, she was back in the moment. Without a second thought, Lilly went to grab the first aid kit. She held the rag she found inside to Lisa's mouth, wiping away the blood. Lisa began to cough up blood, until her throat was finally clear. Donna was now covered in blood, but that didn't stop her from holding her daughter tight as she slowly began to recover from whatever kind of an episode she had just gone through.

The three of them were speechless. Donna cried as she held Lisa tight. She was finally breathing normally again, and was no longer shaking. Tom stroked Lisa's fine blonde hair. Lilly looked down at the bloody rag in her hand. She scrunched the rag into a ball and threw it into the fire. Lilly watched the rag slowly burn until it was nothing more than ash. She didn't know what was happening, but she knew that it couldn't possible have a happy ending.

**Hope you guys are all enjoying this story so far! Thanks to those who are following my story already. If you're not, and you want to stay up to date with this story, please follow for free! Also, a favourite goes a long way, so does a review if you've got time! If I receive enough feedback, I may even upload the next chapter early! We're reaching the end of Episode One, so get ready for what's to come. In the meantime, ya'll have a good one!**

**-George**


	7. Episode I - Chapter Seven

Episode One: Choices We Make

Chapter Seven: No Longer Safe

Donald was still awake when Alex came to his tent to wake him up, although that didn't stop him from complaining about Alex's timing. Alice, however, was fast asleep, and even Donald was scared to interrupt her pleasant rest, the first she had gotten in a while. Alex had insisted that it was very important that they both followed him. But Donald had no idea where he was planning on leading them.

When Alice opened her eyes, her husband was telling her to get dressed and follow him and Alex. She answered in the form of a loud yawn and rolled over to go back to sleep. Donald sighed and shrugged at Alex. "What can you do?" his gesture seemed to say.

Donald got dressed and followed Alex. They didn't speak on the way, but Donald trusted him enough to follow him without questioning. He led him to the campfire, where Clementine and Johnny already sat. Johnny looked relaxed as he warmed his hands above the fire, but Clementine, sat on a log beside him, clearly didn't look so at home.

"I'll go and get Omid and Christa," Alex told Johnny, earning a smile from Clementine and a nod from Johnny.

Donald tried to get comfortable on another log opposite Clementine, to Johnny's left.

"Where's your wife?" Johnny asked, his raspy voice sending a chill down Donald's spine.

"She's sleeping. We all should be," Donald told Johnny bluntly. "What is this about, Johnny?"

Donald was cut off by the return of Alex followed by Omid and Christa, who quickly found Clementine and sat with her. Christa sat on Clementine's right, Omid on her left, and Clem got comfy between them. Christa held Clementine tight, waiting for answers from Johnny. Once Alex had found a seat opposite him, Johnny got started.

"So well all know, or have come to realise, Tom has some anger issues," Johnny said, making Alex laugh out loud. Alex assumed Johnny was trying to be funny, but stopped laughing when he noticed everybody looking at him.

"So far, we've been able to handle him. Sure, he's threatened to kick people out before, but he hasn't crossed that line yet. But things are getting crazier every day. New people are showing up, and are bringing all sorts of trouble with them," Johnny continued, looking at Donald. When he realised Johnny was talking about him, he turned away, but he knew everyone's eyes were on him.

"We've been surrounded," Johnny said, deciding not to beat around the bush. "Take a look over the fence and you'll find that a herd of walkers has gathered around the camp. They're closing in on us, and it won't take much for them to find our camp." Clementine could really hear the seriousness in Johnny's voice now.

"How many are there?" Christa asked, breaking the silence Johnny's words had caused.

"A lot. Too many for us to stay here and still feel safe," Johnny told them. Donald was starting to see where he was going with this. "That's why I suggest we take Tom's RV, use the gas Donald and Alice have kindly offered us, and get the hell out of here."

Everyone was looking at each other for answers. No one knew how to react at first, but Christa soon spoke up.

"What about Tom and his family? And Lilly too?" Christa asked him, wondering if he was actually suggesting what she thought he was.

"If Tom agrees to the plan, then he's welcome to join us. It is his RV after all. But he's still convinced that staying here is the best option for all of us. He still thinks a helicopter might fly over here and spot us. The man's in denial."

"Maybe he's just optimistic," Omid suggested, only partly joking.

"Well, his optimism is about to get us killed. Coach's gunshots attracted those walkers here. Any noise like that will bring them to our doorstep and then, even if there is anyone out there that can help us, it'll still be too late."

"Whatever, we can convince Tom to leave with us. I know we can," Christa insisted.

"No, we can't," a voice responded from afar. Lilly stepped forward, revealing herself to the secret group. "His daughter is dying," she explained, noting the worried look Johnny exchanged with Alex, "He's not going to want to leave here if he thinks it's the best chance of finding rescue. Walkers or no walkers, he's not coming with us."

"Then we have no choice," Johnny concluded. "We can try and talk some sense into him and his wife, but if they're set on staying here, we're not going to change their minds."

"If worse comes to worse, we're going to have to get the keys to the RV from Tom," Alex pointed out.

"I can do that," Lilly announced. "He trusts me. If we have to leave him behind, I can get those keys."

Suddenly, Johnny got off his feet. His eyes were on something behind Lilly. _Walker_, were her first thoughts. She turned sharply. Towering above her stood Tom. She could feel his cold breath on her face as he looked down at her.

"You fucking bitch," he spat at Lilly. She didn't know how to respond. All she could think was how she had predicted this ending right. There was no happy ending in sight.

* * *

"Let me make this absolutely crystal fucking clear," Tom started, "You're not going anywhere – none of us are!"

Everyone was on their feet now. Johnny and Alex kept one eye on Tom and one eye on each other, whilst Christa and Omid stood with Clementine held close. Each one of them wanted to intervene, but none of them knew where to start. Finally, Christa stepped forward. Omid tried to follow, but Clementine was clinging onto his arm so tightly that he could barely move. He put his arm around Clem and watched his girlfriend try to save the day once again.

"Tom, we don't have any choice," Christa said as she put herself between Tom and Lilly, "Those things have us surrounded. We have to go."

"Allow me to correct myself. You're all free to leave, but you're not taking my RV. If you have to go, you can walk," Tom said, although he was certain nobody would actually dare leave the camp on foot if Johnny's talk of the walker herd was true.

"I gave you the benefit of the doubt. I went to you to make things right between us, and for what?" Lilly paused, she had been waiting to tell Tom what she really thought of him since she first met him, "You're a real piece of shit, you know that?"

"Everyone keep it together!" Omid spoke up, "We can't turn on each other. We keep this up and we're no better than those things out there…" He turned around, just to make sure "those things" were still "out there" and not in here.

"Omid's right," Christa told them both. "Tom, I'm so sorry about Lisa, but staying here won't help any of us. The best thing we can do now is get back on the road."

"Yeah, I'm sorry too," said Omid sincerely, "I didn't even know she had been bitten."

"She wasn't bitten," Tom said, now suspicious of Omid. "She's just sick. She's going to be fine." Tom had pushed Lilly aside as he approached Omid. "What made you think she was bitten?" Tom then asked, now right in Omid's face.

"I don't- I-" Omid stumbled, unsure how to respond. Lilly had told them all Lisa was dying. What had happened to the little girl if she hadn't been bitten?

Omid stumbled some more, he was now starting to sweat. Then, he realised something had caught Tom's attention. He was looking around now, his eyes searching for something.

"Where's Donald?" he finally asked?

* * *

The second time Alice was woken by her husband that night, she could tell right away that the situation was far more grave. By the time Alice got off her back, Donald was already packing. Alice was starting to panic - what had her husband so spooked that had changed his attitude so radically since she last saw him? She wanted to ask Donald what had happened with Alex, but he looked determined to get everything packed as quickly as possible. Alice finally put the pieces together and realised: Donald was getting ready to leave.

"What are you doing?" Alice asked her husband. She had already worked it out, but she needed to hear it from him.

"We're leaving, Alice. I'm taking Tom's RV and getting you out of here. These people are going to end up getting us all killed!" Tom told her as he threw their bags of supplies out of the tent into a pile.

"Wait!" Alice told her husband as he left the tent. "We can't leave these people, Donald!" She peered out of the tent to find Donald with his hand under the RV's wheel.

"Aha!" Donald cried out with spirit. Smiling, he revealed the keys to the RV.

"Dammit, Donald," Alice said with her head bowed. She looked disappointed in her husband. "Look what you've done…"

Donald turned. Behind him stood Tom and the rest of the group. And not a single one of them looked impressed as he span the keys with his finger. Donald gulped and dropped the keys.

"Oh shit," Donald uttered, having nothing better to say. Tom, Lilly, Christa and Omid, Johnny and Alex and even Clementine stood before him, each of them looking more disappointed than the last. Donald was half expecting Tom to punch him, but instead he simply held out his hand, waiting for Donald to return the stolen keys.

Donald knelt down to pick up the keys. He found them again, picked them up and looked up to see the front of a boot coming swiftly his way. The blow from Tom's kick almost took him off his feet. He was sent flying back and landed on his ass in a pile of mud. He heard Alice scream as Tom approached him again. At first, Donald had thought the entire group were here to attack him. But through his left eye that, for now, he could still see out of, he saw Lilly and Christa trying to pull Tom back. But even their combined strength wasn't enough to contain Tom, who now had a hold of Donald's hair with his right hand as he sent a left hook flying his way.

* * *

Clementine could no longer keep count of the punches. It felt as though the fight had lasted a lifetime. Although, this could hardly be called a fight. This was more like punishment. But Clementine couldn't help but think that someone needed to punish Tom instead. She began to wonder when someone would step in and help Donald. That was when she saw Lilly raise her gun and point it at Tom. She clicked off the safety, and Tom's ears pricked up.

"That's enough, Tom." Lilly had the gun aimed at Tom's head, like she was ready to shoot a walker. "Leave him."

Tom delivered a final right hook to Donald before stepping out of the pile of mud, now infested with blood and saliva. Upon seeing Lilly with a gun raised at him, Tom put up his hands sarcastically. Clementine thought she could see him smile, and that truly scared her.

"This is what happens!" Tom shouted to the group. "This fucker tried to abandon us. He would have happily left us here to die!"

Tom looked back at Donald. Alice held his bloody and battered head in her hands, trying to wipe away the mud and the blood. "So go ahead and shoot me if you want to. But before you do, do tell me, how exactly does that make you any better than me?"

Hearing his words, Lilly lowered her weapon. The night sky crackled as a storm began. Lightning showed its face for the first time that night, and thunder roared in the night. The rain beat down on their faces as each of them considered Tom's question. It was silent besides the sound of the brewing storm until the arrival of Donna. Lilly first mistook her tears for raindrops, but she soon realised she was crying.

Donna went to her husband and fell into his arms. He embraced her, although he still didn't understand her reasons for crying. Had she seen what he had just done? Would she understand why he did it? These thoughts raced through Tom's mind, but it all became clear when Donna said a simple couple of words to him.

"She's gone," Donna said, trembling in Tom's arms. "I'm sorry, Tom. She's gone…"

Everyone understood what Donna's word meant. Clementine bowed her head with the rest of the group. She took Omid's hand and squeezed it hard.

Tom returned to his tent in silence. His wife followed. One by one, the group returned to their tents until only Lilly was left. Alice, with her husband still laid in her arms, looked to Lilly. The look in her eyes made Lilly think she was asking for help, but Lilly turned around and walked away.

Above them, the storm slowly brewing erupted again, and the night was brightened by the flash of lightning, and the distant cry of thunder followed.

* * *

**Well, I hope you guys all enjoyed this chapter, the penultimate chapter in the first episode of Season Two. Episode Two is currently in the works, so I'll probably publish Chapter Eight sometime next week. Remember, the sooner you review/favourtie/follow this story, the sooner I'll upload the next chapter. I also can't write this without giving huge thanks to IzzyandDesRoxSox, who posted my first review last week! Izzy, thank you for your kind words and motivating me to stay on top of my work! It's thanks to Izzy that this chapter is up so early too. So thanks everyone who is reading this, who has followed and favourited my work and supported me in general. I'll see you next week for Chapter Eight. Hope you guys are ready, it's going to be a big one! ;)**

**-George**


	8. Episode I - Chapter Eight

Episode One

Chapter Eight: Choices We Make

They were back around the campfire. The storm had passed, allowing Johnny to light another fire. He sat beside Alex, holding his hand tight. Alice sat to their left, holding an ice pack to her husband's bruised face. To Johnny's right sat Omid and Christa, with Clementine asleep on their lap. Christa stroked her hair as she snored silently as Omid kept her from rolling out of her place. Clementine often struggled to stay still in her sleep, but as she slept there, the golden flames of the campfire keeping her warm, she didn't move a muscle. Lilly sat opposite Johnny and next to Coach. Johnny had decided it was time to bring the group's muscle back into the loop. He realised he could have used Coach's help when Tom was beating Donald to a pulp. Coach was supposed to have been on watch at that point, but after Tom returned to his tent, Johnny found Coach sleeping in his tent. He wasn't angry with Coach, but with a herd of walkers surrounding the camp, it certainly wasn't safe to leave the front gate unattended.

"Tom should listen to reason now," Johnny went on. They had been discussing what was next for the group after Tom's daughter had passed away. "He and his wife have no reason to stay. If anything, the man's lucky we don't _leave_ him after what he did to Donald." The group's attention once again turned to the battered and bruised Donald, who gave Johnny an unenthusiastic thumbs up for his words.

"But what if it's the exact opposite?" Christa cut in. "What if Tom decides he doesn't care what happens to him and the rest of us? The man clearly isn't mentally stable! With his daughter dead, why should he care what happens to the rest of us?"

Johnny thought about her point, but then remembered something. "Because he has a wife, that's why. He's not going to put Donna in danger."

This made Lilly laugh. "It's not exactly a marriage made in heaven," she said, making the whole group smirk, "but you're right. He wouldn't let Donna get hurt."

Johnny noticed a walker in the corner of his eye, approaching the camp's gate. He whistled to Coach, getting his attention, and nodded at the walker. The walker looked like an older man from what Johnny could make it. It was balding and was wearing a suit and bow tie, as though it had just left a wedding, and gotten hit by a car on its way here. Lilly handed Coach a gun as he got up on his feet to deal with the trespasser.

"So it's settled then," Johnny concluded. "I'll talk with Tom, and we'll get that RV ready to drive out of here before another storm." Everyone nodded in agreement, and Alex gave Johnny's hand a congratulatory squeeze. Johnny watched as Coach slowly approached the walker, whose dead eyes had caught the campfire's flames. But his heart sank when he saw Coach reach into the back of his trousers and draw a firearm.

Coach put one hand in front of his eyes to keep blood out of them as he raised the gun to the height of the walkers head. Coach was close enough to press the barrel of the gun against the walker's head, right between its eyes.

"NOOO!" Johnny screamed at Coach. If the herd of walkers didn't hear the gunshot, they would hear Johnny's cries for Coach to stop. But Johnny was too late. His cries only startled Coach, causing him to pull the trigger a second earlier than he had intended. The sound of the gunshot rang through the air, and Johnny wanted to bury his head in his hands and cry.

* * *

His daughter laid as still as a statue, as though she were just asleep. Tom didn't let go of her hand for a second, even though it had turned as cold as ice by now. All life had left the little girl, leaving behind this pale ghost-like shell. Tom thought of all the things he would have given to see Lisa smile again. He looked at his wife, who sat opposite him. She too held her daughter's hand. Every few seconds, she took the girl's hand to her mouth, and kissed the back of it softly. Tom smiled every time she did so, although he couldn't shake the feeling that his daughter was taken from him so unfairly. _It should have been her_, Tom thought as he stared into his wife's eyes. She took Lisa's hand, and pecked it again.

"What are we going to do, Tom?" Donna asked her husband. But Tom didn't break his silence. He didn't ignore his wife's question, he actually thought about it for a good long minute, but he never gave her an answer, because he had no idea.

Then, Donald was in their tent, his face still bruised and battered from Tom's beating.

"We're leaving," Donald said, although Tom wasn't sure whether this was an invitation or a goodbye. He knew one thing for sure, unless they wanted to walk, they weren't going anywhere without his keys.

Tom turned around, although he wasn't sure what he was going to say. Donald looked terrified. He was obviously expecting Tom to lay into him again. But then Tom realised, his eyes had been caught by something behind him. Tom turned quickly to see his daughter sat upright. For a moment, Tom thought a miracle had occurred in that tent. But he soon realised, this was a curse.

Tom only got a brief glance at the walker, but when he glanced into those cold, grey, lifeless eyes, he realised, his daughter was gone. The walker dug it's teeth into Donna, its bite spraying blood across the tent, ripping flesh from her neck. The noise Tom let out then was sheepish, but he couldn't bring himself to move.

"FUCK!" Donald cried. He tried to pull Tom out of the tent, but he wasn't going anywhere. Lisa pulled herself off Donna as she chewed a final piece of flesh before setting her sights on Tom. Tom saw his wife fall limp and lifeless onto her back as his daughter began to crawl towards him, drooling as she crawled. He reached into the back of his trousers, and pulled out a gun, but he knew he couldn't do what he had to.

Suddenly, the gun was out of his hands and in Donald's. Tom felt the cold grip of his daughter's dead hands as she pulled herself up his leg. He looked into the undead creature's eyes, those endless pools of nothingness, as Donald reached into his view holding Tom's gun with his right hand.

BLAM. Blood splattered across Tom's face whilst the recoil put Donald on his back. His daughter was now slumped on Tom's lap, limp, lifeless and cold. When the ringing in his ears finally stopped, Tom turned to Donald. He held out his hand, asking for his weapon back. Donald looked unsure, but returned Tom's gun. Tom looked at his wife, disgusted with himself for being willing to do what he had to.

"Leave me," Tom told Donald. He left then tent and went on his way, confident that Tom would follow shortly. The sound of a loud and close gunshot stopped him in his tracks. Donald sighed. He knew that what had just happened in that tent - he would never speak of to anybody, and he never did. His mind still trying to comprehend the tragedy that had just befallen Tom, Donald didn't notice the walker that crawled out of the tall grass behind him. He didn't catch the gaze of the nightmarish figure's face until the undead creature had swiped it's sharp, black claws and seized Donald's leg, causing him to fall into the wet grass where Donald could only listen to himself scream helplessly as the pain that followed made him cry out.

* * *

When Donald finally boarded the RV, he was welcomed aboard with a warm hug from Alice. Clementine only counted four people missing then. Tom and his wife and daughter, and Coach. She wondered if the gunshots she had just heard belonged to Coach, but as she searched for him out the RV's rain-covered window, there was no sign of him.

The rain hit harder and harder with every minute that passed, the storm had returned, and the group were getting impatient.

"Where the fuck is Tom!?" Johnny demanded from the driver's seat. For the past five minutes, he had been ready to start the RV and drive away from this nightmare, but one key tool that he required was missing; the RV's keys.

"He's coming," Donald said as reassuringly as he could, but Clementine could tell it wasn't that simple. He hadn't looked a single one of them in the eye since he joined them. "But, his wife and daughter, they didn't make it."

Everyone understood what Donald's words meant, but they still had so many questions. Despite all of their questions, however, everyone remained silent.

A sequence of gunshots rang outside, closer together than the ones Clementine had heard earlier. Outside, she could see Coach fending off a flood of a flood of walkers. They had broken through a weak spot in the fence, but Coach was fighting them off. Everyone was watching out of the windows now, but nobody was acting. Omid, who had strained his injured leg making it to the RV, was laid back on the RV's sofa bed, but he still managed a smile when Clementine looked back at him. Alex was sat in the passenger seat next to Johnny, whilst Lilly and Christa sat with Clementine watching Coach. Finally, Lilly sat up and grabbed her gun. But then, something caught Clementine's eye.

"Look!" she cried. At least three walkers had now made it through the fence. Coach backed up as he continued to open fire one them. But he looked done for when a walker grabbed him as he reloaded his firearm. The walker had dug its claws into Coach's shirt, tearing it across the front. But a bullet took it through it's shoulder, and the walker dropped to the ground. Tom grabbed Coach by the shoulder and shouted something to him.

"Get in the fucking RV!" Tom screamed at Coach at the top of his voice. The walkers had started to break through the fence, so there was no time to ask nicely. Coach saw the open doors of the RV and began to make his way there when something grabbed Tom from behind, pulling him down into the mud.

Tom was on his back now. He wrestled with the walker in the mud. It's teeth chattered as it came closer and closer to biting Tom's face. The stench of the walker was so unbearable, Tom almost wanted to give in and let the creature finish him off. His efforts to push the walker off of him were proving no good so far. He took his hand and grabbed the walker's neck, as if to try and choke it to death. Out of the corner of his eye, Tom could see Coach trying to aim for the walker with his gun from a couple of metres away. Tom cried out, thinking there was more chance of Coach killing him than the walker.

"No, Coach!" He cried. "Come closer!" The walker came close and closer to Tom. He felt its drool drip onto his face, and he knew the next thing he would feel would be the cold bite of the undead creature as it sank it's teeth into his neck.

BLAM. The bullet passed straight though the walker's head. Tom even heard the bullet ring as it passed and hit the fence in the distance. The walker stayed atop him for a few seconds, motionless, before it feel into the mud beside him. After he got back on his feet, Tom gave the walker a swift kick in the chest. He looked at Coach, and gave him a courteous nod.

* * *

Walkers were flooding into the camp from all corners now. The fence hadn't slowed them down for long. The gate was nothing more than a pile of planks now, and the tents were being ripped apart by the savage trespassers. Clementine watched as one walker stumbled to the RV, attracted by its beaming headlights. It clawed and scratched at the beam of light, trying to catch it in its hand. When the RV's engine roared into life, the walker looked jumped. It stepped back, but Johnny didn't waste any time plowing through the helpless creature with the RV. It slammed into the walker. The creature fell under the vehicle, and Clementine could hear a loud CRUNCH, which was most likely the sound of the walker's skull being crushed by one of the rear tires.

Clementine took a good look around her. She saw Donald and Alice in each other's arms, and she saw Tom looking at them both with envious and hateful eyes. She saw Coach almost fall asleep as he got comfortable on the end of the sofa bed, the rest of which was taken up by Omid, who _was_ asleep. Christa was running her fingers through his hair lovingly. Lilly stood at the back of the RV counting the bullets in her gun. When she noticed Clementine looking at her, she managed a faint smile. Alex never took his hand of Johnny's shoulder, who continued to plow the RV through a seemingly endless army of walkers, until he had finally steered the RV out of the camp.

The RV shook it's passengers as Johnny steered it across the bumpy terrain that was the outskirts of Savannah. It sped up as it drove down the steep hill, and Clementine feared for a second that Johnny wouldn't be able to make it stop. But once they reached the bottom of the hill, back where Omid and Christa had first found Clementine, Johnny slowed the RV down to a comfortable speed, and directed it to the road. Clementine looked back at the camp from the window to her left. As she watched the fences being torn down, the tents being torn apart and the walkers flooding the hilltop, many different feelings filled her head. She couldn't describe them all, but one feeling she did recognise was the same one she got when Lee found her at her house in Atlanta, when they first got on the road. It was the feeling she got when she knew she was leaving to go somewhere better. The feeling that gave her comfort as she sat in the back of that RV was hope.

However, Clementine's feeling of hope was short-lived when she heard the all too familiar sound of Alice's cries. Alice was knelt in front of her husband, Donald, who sat on the second sofa bed opposite Coach and Omid. After hearing her tears, Clementine, Lilly and Christa gathered around her to find out what the problem was. Clementine squeezed in between Lilly and Christa to see Donald laid back, sweating with his right trouser leg rolled up to reveal his hairy thigh. In the middle of his leg, just below his knee, was a large red gash, from which blood bubbled and dripped down his thigh. A large chunk had been taken out of Donald's leg. He had been bitten. Clementine gasped at the horrific sight of the bite and covered her mouth. She looked at Lilly, whose hand was already reaching to the pistol stashed in the back of her trousers.

"What's going on back there?" Johnny asked, the adrenaline making his voice much higher-pitched than usual. "Should I stop the RV?"

No one replied. Nobody knew what to do - except for Lilly, whose grip had tightened around her pistol as she pulled it from its stash.

**TO BE CONTINUED...**

* * *

**Well, I hope you all enjoyed Episode One of my Fan Fiction. In this episode my focus was on introducing and establishing the new characters, as well as providing a few new surprises on the way. The purpose of this episode was to set up the rest of the season - things are going to get pretty crazy from now! So I hope you guys decide to stick with this story and enjoy the rest of it. I'm currently in the process of editing Episode Two. The sooner I get some REVIEWS from you guys, the sooner it'll go up. And again, thanks to everyone who has Favorited/Followed/Reviewed this story already, it's because of you guys that I'm writing this story, so a big thank you goes out to you awesome people! Follow me on Twitter Mr_George_B for updates on The Walking Dead Season Two. Just send me a tweet and ask anything you want! :)**

**-George**


	9. Tales of Crawford: Part I

The Walking Dead

Tales of Crawford Part I

**Thank you everyone who has left feedback on The Walking Dead: Season Two so far. I hope you all enjoyed the conclusion to Episode One and I would hope that you'll all be glad to hear that Episode Two is currently being edited and is on the way! To help with the wait, however, and as a big thank you to all of your kind comments and favoruties/follows, I present a new short story: Tales of Crawford.**

**This is a story set within the world of The Walking Dead (taking place between Episode One and Two of The Walking Dead: Season One) that gives us a better look at the Crawford, the town that Lee and his group find overrun by walkers in Episode 4 of The Walking Dead. But how did Crawford come to fall? And who were the people who lived there? Tales of Crawford will show you the fall of Crawford and its infamous leader and how it affected some of the characters that will soon play a major part in The Walking Dead: Season Two. So, I hope you enjoy this story. If you want Episode Two soon, feed me some reviews!**

* * *

On that night, the halls of Crawford seemed darker than ever before. The gloomy hallways of the old school building sent a chill down Jerry spine as his footsteps echoed through the building, sending mice scurrying back to their holes and Crawford's delinquents back to theirs. Jerry held a tight grip on his 9mm pistol, though he didn't expect to find anything worth using it on when he turned at every corner. Crawford was a safe zone; humans were the only thing that plagued the town. The walkers were kept at bay by the town's fences and the many gunmen that sat atop them. It was Crawford's strict rules and policies that threatened the townspeople the most, all of whom had been brainwashed by the words of their fearless leader: Oberson. Once upon a time, Jerry had trusted the man, but those days had come and gone. As he began to see other people less as human beings and more as liabilities, Oberson's laws had become tighter and tighter, eventually disallowing children, elderly or sick people to live inside Crawford's walls. The thought often made Jerry cringe and tense his muscles – sometimes even physically ill, as it made him think back to the people he had been obliged to remove from the town. Families of four, elderly married couples, mothers with sick children; _all_ Oberson had made leave the town to meet an uncertain fate outside their walls, and it had been Jerry, the Sheriff of Crawford, who had been the one to force them out of their homes and out into the walker-infested streets of Savannah.

Being an officer of the law before the walker outbreak, Jerry was soon dubbed 'The Sheriff' of Crawford by Oberson, and quickly became one of his most trusted supporters; though the feeling was becoming less and less mutual. The extreme cautions that Oberson had taken to protect Crawford and its people haunted Jerry every day, as did the punishments Jerry had been made to dish out. Oberson called it "justice", but Jerry often wondered if Oberson got some kind of sick satisfaction from seeing people and their families suffer as the rest of Crawford kneeled before him. He sometimes wondered if one day, the time would come when Oberson himself needed to be made a lesson of. But Jerry always bit his tongue. In Crawford, that was the kind of talk that got you killed. When he turned the next corner, the sudden appearance of a figure in the darkness caused Jerry to frantically pull his 9 mil from his holster which he then pointed in the face of the walker. But when the figure emerged further from the darkness, Jerry could see that the figure was no walker, but a young resident of Crawford with clips in her beautiful golden hair. She wore a grey tracksuit, zipped all the way up to her neck. Jerry could see that she was sweating. She came closer to Jerry with her hands raised in the air mockingly.

"Am I under arrest or something?" the girl asked him sarcastically.

"No. Sorry. I thought you were a walker is all," Jerry apologised as he holstered his pistol again.

"Wow, I look that bad without makeup, huh?" she joked, though Jerry didn't seem so amused. "It was a joke…"

"I haven't seen you around here before," Jerry told her, studying her suspiciously. "What's your name?"

"It's Molly. You're The Sheriff in this town, right? I've heard a lot about you." The girl seemed friendly enough, though she didn't offer a handshake. She seemed as though she was holding something back.

"Good things, I hope," Jerry replied. Oberson had made Jerry out to be some silent protector who, if you misbehaved and broke the rules, would sneak into your room at night and take you away without making a sound. But that was all a charade to keep the people of Crawford in their places. As a matter of fact, Jerry was one of the kindest folks you could meet around Crawford.

The door behind Molly then swung open, and Dr Logan stepped out of his office. He was an older gentleman who would never be seen around Crawford out of his doctors scrubs. The only hair on his head was grey, as was his unshaven beard that made him look more like the town drunk than the only resident of Crawford with an actual PHD.

"What's going on out here?" He asked having heard the two's chatter. If there was one thing Dr Logan was not a fan of, it was a conversation he was not a part of. Always fearing that Oberson was trying to get rid of him, Logan tried to remain in the loop. He always asked Jerry if Oberson ever spoke of him and if he did, whether the things he said were good or bad. As he stepped out into the hallway, Jerry could see that Logan was zipping up his trousers. When he noticed that the doctor was sweating frantically too, Jerry finally figured out what was going on, and it disgusted him.

"Jesus, Walter," was all Jerry could think to say. He turned away from both of them in disgust, giving Molly the opportunity to skulk away in the dark hallways of the school and disappear. Jerry rubbed his forehead. He had a headache.

When he finally turned back around, Jerry saw that Molly was gone. But Dr Logan still stood with his tail tucked between his legs. Jerry had always trusted the doctor, but he always knew he wasn't one for charity. Though he had heard rumblings of some of the doctors "arrangements" with some of his clients, Walter rarely failed to repulse him.

"Dammit, Walter. What're you thinking? She's just a kid," Jerry said as his head thumped.

"What does it look like?" the doctor replied in a cold, raspy voice. "Money is no good here. But there are other ways they can repay me for my services. I'm only human after all."

_You're not even that, you're a sick old pervert_, Jerry thought to himself and wanted to say aloud to the disgraced doctor, but unfortunately he needed this _sick old pervert_'s help.

"_So?_ What do you want?" Dr Logan asked finally, making himself sound busier than he really was. These days, the doctor's schedule consisted of nothing much more than signing prescriptions, ripping off clients and masturbating. But apparently, he had added conning women into sleeping with him to that list. The thought made Jerry feel sick. Walter began to tap his foot against the floor repeatedly, waiting for an answer from Jerry, who was still thinking about Molly and how desperate she must have been to come to this scumbag.

"It's my wife, doc," Jerry explained. "She needs help."

Dr Logan seemed to finally understand the gravity of Jerry's situation. He looked around him, making sure that none of Oberson's many eyes around Crawford were not watching them before he looked back to Jerry. He held the door to his office open as he said: "Step into my office." Jerry followed Walter into his office, and the door slammed behind him. The sound echoed through the halls of the school, but was heard by no one still.

* * *

Earlier that same day, Jerry Winters had come home to some big news. It was the kind of news that, under normal circumstances, would be followed by parties and other festivities. But in Crawford, this kind of news was followed only by pain and misery. When Jerry opened his door, the first thing he noticed was his beautiful wife sat atop their bed. Usually, Jerry would be welcomed home form his shift with a hug and a warm kiss on the cheek, and maybe even a cup of coffee if he was lucky, as though nothing had ever changed. But today, Jerry found his wife sat with her head in her hands, her red blouse wet with tears. Jerry hung his hat and coat up where Lillian usually hung it when she exchanged them for a warm cup of coffee. Today, Jerry had to do it himself for the first time in weeks. Something was wrong. He approached his wife and cupped her cheek. Her cheeks were hot from the tears that still ran down her face. Lillian pulled her hands away to look at her husband. She still wept even when Jerry sat beside her and held her in his arms. He rocked her slowly as she sobbed into his arm, wetting his work shirt with more hot tears. Jerry could see the pregnancy tester in her open hand now. Two pink lines filled the circle next to the text that read: TWO LINES = PREGNANT. Jerry's heart sank. His old self wanted to jump up with joy, but he knew that the only sane thing to do right now would have been to join his wife and weep endlessly. Even still, he sat emotionless, his mind flooding with ideas of what their future held, if they even had one now.

"What's wrong, honey?" Jerry asked innocently despite already knowing the answer.

"Oh, Jerry, sweetie," Lillian finally said after a long silent pause, fighting back her tears. "I'm pregnant," she finally said as she broke into another round of whimpering and sobbing.

"Hey, shh," Jerry said to Lillian, holding her tight. He didn't know what to say. "This is good, Lilly. This is great!" He tried to reassure her, though he knew he wasn't fooling anybody – including himself.

"Good?" Lillian asked, taken aback by Jerry's response. "How is this good? You know Crawford's laws. You know what Oberson will do when he finds out."

The thing that worried Jerry the most was that, as a matter of fact, he _didn't_ know what Oberson would do if he found out, or what he would make Jerry do. Oberson had become more and more unpredictable by the rise of the sun. Even so, Jerry tied to remain positive.

"I still trust Oberson, and he still trusts me. I could try and work something out."

"NO! You can't tell Oberson! Not him, not anyone. Please, Jerry." Lillian pleaded.

"Of course I won't, baby. Of course," Jerry comforted her as he pulled her close. The two had had their fair share of problems, but they had survived for this long together, so they must have been doing something right. "I won't tell a soul," Jerry lied to his wife.

Lilly pulled back and kissed her husband on the lips. His hands reached under her blouse and squeezed her soft breasts. Lillian snapped back, pushing away Jerry's hands. "No," she said. "This is what got us into trouble in the first place," she joked with a half-smile. "Besides, I'm not exactly in the mood right now." Lillian laid on her back on the bed and turned to face the wall, her head laid on the pillow. Jerry got on his feet and went for the door.

Before he left, Jerry turned back to his wife. Although she could easily have been asleep, Jerry said one last thing to her. "We're going to have this baby, Lilly," he told her. "And he's going to be beautiful." Jerry turned to swung the door open and left the room, a smile planted across his tired face.

* * *

On his way to the office of Dr Walter Ashe (known better as Dr Logan to the residents of Crawford), Jerry found Anna outside the doors to the school. She leaned against the wall wrapped up in a trench coat meant for a man twice her size, and a scarf that hid her neck. Jerry approached her and saw her face light up when she finally recognized him. They exchanged the same pleasantries they always did before they disappeared together for a couple of hours, only this time Jerry had somewhere to be. Jerry said his goodbyes to Anna, his breath turning to vapour in the cold night air, and was about to grab the handle of one of the doors to the school when Anna pushed his arm away.

"Where are you going?" Anna asked him, wondering why their time together was ending so early.

"I'm sorry, Anna. I have to go," Jerry tried to tell her, though he knew he could only tell her so much. "I have some things going on right now, and there's somewhere I need to be."

"Rough day?" Anna asked sarcastically. Every day was a rough one in Crawford.

"You don't know the half of it," Jerry replied with a smirk.

When Jerry's smirk disappeared, and he began to look worried, Anna began to realise something was wrong. She took his hands and kissed one of them as she saw a tear begin to fill Jerry's eye. "What's wrong?" She asked him, only much more seriously this time.

"Everything," Jerry replied. It was the most truthful thing he'd said all day. He pulled his hands out of Anna's grasp and moved them to her face. Jerry grabbed Anna's soft, freckled cheeks and pulled her lips to his. The kiss was warm and soothing in the air of that cold night and, just for the few seconds that kiss lasted, all of Jerry's troubles seemed to be non-existent.

* * *

When Jerry woke up beside Anna, his arms wrapped around her slender, freckled, naked body, his first thoughts were of his wife. The wife he'd lied to, cheated and abandoned when she needed him most. That last thought struck Jerry the most, and he sat up sharply, the bed sheets sliding off him and revealing his sweaty, muscular bare chest. He put his head in his hands and scrunched his hair until it swept back over his head. Beside him, Anna sat up. She kissed his shoulder and leaned against him as she softly stroked his arm.

"We have to stop this," Jerry finally said. Anna slowly pulled away from Jerry and went quite in the awkwardness that followed. Eventually, she pulled herself out of bed. She didn't hide away her naked body, instead she took her time to pick her underwear from the floor and slowly dressed herself. "It's my wife," Jerry went on. "She's pregnant."

Realising she was pulling a vest over herself as he said those words, Jerry became unsure as to whether or not Anna had actually hear him. But when she turned around, he could see in her cold, hateful eyes that she had heard him loud and clear. She picked up another pair of underwear, this pair belonging to a man, as well as a pair of trousers and a shirt, scrunched them into a messy bundle and tossed them at Jerry. She raised her arm, pointing in the direction of the room door and simply said: "Get out."

It was all that needed to be said. Jerry leapt out of bed and jumped straight into his briefs. He was about to pick up his jeans and shirt when Anna spoke again. "No," she said, still pointing at the door. "You can put those on outside."

"You've got to be kidding me," Jerry asked, but he already knew very well that Anna wasn't joking. He carried the pile of clothing to the door, where Anna let him out. He stood in the hallway where he began to dress himself. When he finally had his jeans back on, he begged Anna again. "Please, Anna. Just let me-" he tried to say before the door slammed in his face. When he looked around him, he saw that Anna's neighbours were watching, their heads peering through their open doors, and Jerry left.

* * *

It was nearing 10 o'clock now. Jerry was still going through the many events of that day when he stepped into Dr Logan's office. From his wife's big announcement to his spat with Anna, today had been quite a day. He rubbed his forehead again, his head was pounding now. Noticing his pain, the doctor took a bottle of aspirin from his medical cabinet that screeched as Walter opened it. He grabbed Jerry's hand and forced the bottle into it. Jerry smiled back at the doctor, and hid the bottle away in one of his back pockets. Nobody needed to know that Crawford's only trusted law keeper was on medication. Dr Logan then took a seat in his leather office chair and waited for Jerry to explain the reason behind his visit. When he finally found the words, Jerry told the doctor everything. He told him about his pregnant wife, how she had asked that Jerry not tell anybody, and how he was betraying his wife just by being here. He told him how they had always wanted a son, how they had been trying even before the walker outbreak, and how he would do anything to protect them and their unborn child. Then, Jerry told Dr Logan something else. Something he had been thinking about since he left his apartment. Something that had been on his mind even when he was with Anna. Something he hadn't even been sure he trusted the doctor enough to tell him, but he did. Jerry told Walter of his plan. His plan to overthrow Oberson, take over Crawford and restore the town to its old ways. His plan left the good doctor speechless.

"Jerry," the doctor began, "I consider you to be my good, honest friend, so don't take this the wrong way, but I have to ask: have you completely and truly gone insane?" He asked without so much as a smile.

Jerry was the speechless one now. "What?" he asked between laughing hesitantly.

"I can't believe we're even talking about this. These are the kinds of conversations people have before they up and disappear," Dr Logan said, though he could see Jerry still wasn't quite getting it. "Oberson has eyes everywhere. So much as thinking about any kind of "revolution" is beyond foolish, and I never took you for a fool, Jeremiah."

Jerry cringed at hearing his Christian name that he hated so, although Lillian had always liked it. "I'm not a fool. That's why I'm here. Right now, the smartest thing I can think to do is to try and talk some sense into Oberson. Things have gotten out of hand, Walter."

"Don't think I don't know that," Walter replied quickly. He didn't want Jerry to even think for a second that he was in support of any of Oberson's policies. "Let me tell you, the smartest thing you can do now is take your wife and leave Crawford. There's nothing here for you but pain and misery." Jerry thought for a second that he could see a hint of remorse in Walter's eyes, but then he remembered who he was talking to. "Do you understand?"

Jerry thought about what Walter had told him long and hard. He wanted so much to show Oberson that his actions would not stand. He wanted so much to restore Crawford to its former glory, for it to be a place on the map for survivors to come and live in safety. He wanted so much to see his son grow old. But he knew that there was no life outside the walls of Crawford, so he would have to make a decision. Did he want to die inside the walls of Crawford as his friends and neighbours watched their fearless leader serve out what he called "justice"? Or did he want to die out in the walker-infested streets of Savannah (if he and his wife even made it that far), where he would be forces to watch his wife and unborn child be devoured by the walking dead. He made his decision. He was going to die inside Crawford, but not without a fight. "I understand," he told Dr Logan as he stepped out of his office, his face cold and grey in the dark halls of Crawford.

* * *

It was approaching midnight when Jerry was woken by a knock on his door. Before he got out of bed, Jerry checked to make sure his wife was still laid down beside him in their bed. She was, which slowed down Jerry's heart rate enough for him to get up and open the door. Tommy stood with his hands buried in his pockets, chewing the noisiest gum Jerry had ever heard, and smiled when Jerry opened the door, though he had to do a double-take of sorts when he saw that Jerry was wearing nothing but his briefs. Tommy pushed his glasses from the bottom of his nose back up to his eyes as he continued to chew his gum noisily.

"Hey, Jerry," Tommy said holding out his right hand. "How's it goin'?"

"I've been better," Jerry said as he shook Tommy's hand. He stopped there. There was no point in involving someone else in his plot. Especially Tommy, whom Jerry knew worked closely with Oberson. There had been a time when Jerry would have trusted Tommy with his darkest secrets, but since then Oberson had brainwashed Tommy just like he had the rest of Crawford. "What's up?"

"We've got a situation," Tommy said. Jerry could tell something serious was going down from Tommy's tone. "You're needed outside."

"When did Oberson stop being able to come and fetch me himself?" Jerry asked, keeping his voice down. Not just to avoid waking the neighbours, but just in case Oberson _was_ nearby.

"When you disgraced the badge he gave you," Tommy said bluntly. He had been vague, but Jerry knew exactly what he was talking about. Tommy noticed Jerry's reaction. He sighed out loud as he closed the door to his apartment. "We know you've been sticking it to that blonde girl from Block C."

"Who knows?" Jerry said, angered by Tommy's words. He felt threatened.

"Everybody, it's all around Crawford," Tommy told him. Jerry couldn't have been sure whether he had been bluffing or not. All that mattered was that Lillian never found out.

Jerry sighed again. This day was only getting worse. "What do you want, anyway?"

"Like I said, you're needed outside," Tommy told him again. Jerry noticed he had a grip on his pistol now, just in case Jerry was going to refuse to comply. _That's the Crawford way_, Jerry thought.

"Okay, just give me a minute," Jerry told him before he stepped back into his apartment to get dressed. He was about to put on some clothes when he saw that his wife still laid asleep beneath the blankets. He stood over her, watching her dream. Before he left, Jerry leaned over his wife and planted a soft kiss atop her head. He threw on his uniform, hat, boots and badge included, and left the room, locking the door on his way out.

* * *

Outside, despite the winter cold, a crowd had gathered, though Jerry couldn't quite make out _what_ or _who_ they had gathered around. When he heard the first couple of screams, he raced ahead of Tommy and hustled through the crowd, pushing and shoving his neighbours out of his way. The screams were coming from a woman - a young woman. He pushed past another couple of people who cursed under their breath at him for shoving past them. When he finally emerged from the seemingly endless wave of angry bystanders, Jerry saw Oberson stood tall holding a bright lantern high above the crowd. The lantern lit up Oberson's face, revealing an unkempt beard and those dark grey eyes that Jerry had come to know. His hair appeared to move like a flame as the lantern's light flickered in the wind. Jerry then saw the couple who knelt beside Oberson, as though they were bowing to their King. _Their usurper King_, Jerry had named Oberson. He recognized the older girl instantly. _Molly_, he thought with alarm. And the little girl she held tight in her arms could only have been her sister.

"How nice of you to join us… Sheriff," Oberson said mockingly earning several laughs from the crowd at the expense of the disgraced officer.

"What's going on here, Oberson?" Jerry asked calmly, not giving him the satisfaction of seeming at all fazed by the laughter.

Oberson presented Molly and her sister, whom she still cradled in her arms, to the gathering audience and Jerry with the sway of his hand as though he was trying to sell a new car model. Molly was looking back at Oberson with hateful eyes, who was too busy entertaining the crowd (which was growing lager by the second) to notice. "This fine young woman was caught stealing medical supplies from the office of our dearest Dr Walter Ashe. It appears her sister is diabetic and in need of insulin," he explained to Jerry and the crowd. "You know the rules about sick people, Jeremiah," he was speaking directly to Jerry now.

"She has diabetes, Oberson. Jesus, she's fine! With the right medicine, she'll be okay," Jerry tried to tell Oberson what he already knew as Molly looked at him with eyes that pleaded for his help.

"That medicine is for all of Crawford, and yet this bitch thinks she can steal it all for herself? A lot of things have changed, Sheriff, that much is true, but stealing is still a crime in Crawford!" Jerry watched as Oberson pulled a revolver from the inside of his dirty suit. "What am I to do?" He asked Jerry rhetorically.

"Not this. Please, Oberson," Jerry begged him. "This is unethical."

Now, the entire crowd was laughing, Oberson included. "Unethical?" He said, still sniggering. "That's rich coming from a saint like you, Jeremiah. Last time I checked, cheating on your wife was seen as "unethical" too."

Right now, Jerry wanted nothing more than to punch that bastard right between the eyes and wipe that cheap smirk right off his old, unshaven face. But he knew he couldn't.

"Please, Oberson," a voice said from nearby. It was Molly. "I'm sorry I stole those supplies, please just don't hurt my sister."

"Sorry, darling," Oberson said in that sadistic, creepy voice that still scared Jerry. "But you and your sister are thieves and need to be made a lesson of."

"Just send them away," Jerry pleaded with Oberson again. "Just kick them out of Crawford and tell them never to return. Please, Oberson. Just don't hurt them."

"I won't," Oberson told him, smiling manically. "You will," he explained as he placed the revolver in Jerry's hand.

The snub-nosed pistol felt heavy in Jerry's hand. He held it high in one hand as he looked down the barrel at Molly's sister. The sound of Molly's screams and cries as she tried frantically to kick her way out of the grasp of two of Oberson's men who held her back began to fade as Jerry focused solely on his own thoughts. He could do it right now. He could turn just a few degrees and shoot Oberson. Once in the chest, and again in the head – that's how he would do it, in that order too. He would want Oberson to know that he did it before he died. But Jerry still held the gun in the direction of Molly's sister, who knelt helplessly before him, tears rolling down her red cheeks. Her eyes could scarcely be seen through her dirt blonde hair that hung so low, but just by getting a quick glance at her eyes of hazel brown, he could see that she was undoubtedly Molly's sister. "Do it," he heard Oberson whisper in his ear, he hadn't heard him approach him from behind. "Do it, or they'll never respect you again." Jerry wanted so much to turn around and put an end to Oberson's reign of terror, but he couldn't. He caught the eye of Tommy, who watched him from the front of the crowd. As he continued to chew away at his gum, Tommy nodded at Jerry. Tommy was but one of Oberson's many followers and supporters all of whom would be out for the head of anyone who would do him harm. Avenging Oberson would be their first step in taking his place as leader of Crawford. Crawford had been named after Oberson's forename, causing Jerry to wonder what Tommy would start calling the town if he were to ever take Oberson's place. "Do. It." Oberson said again from behind Jerry, causing him to stop daydreaming finally. The hostility in Oberson's voice caused Jerry to tighten his grip on the trigger. Killing Oberson would only get him killed too. Either that or he would rot in a jail cell for the rest of his day – and that would be if he was extremely lucky. As for his wife, Jerry knew she would be raped and tortured until Oberson got bored of hearing her screams and killed her too. Their son would never have a future inside Crawford's walls, which was why they had to leave. It all seemed easier if Oberson was dead, but Jerry knew he could not kill him. He knew that, for now, he had to follow the mad man's orders. He pulled the trigger. The shot forced his eyes shut and rang through the night air for a few long seconds. The silence that followed lasted only a couple of seconds before it was broken by Molly's high-pitched screams as she held her sister's corpse in her arms, cursing Oberson, the Sheriff and all of Crawford as the crowd began to thin out. Oberson patted Jerry on the shoulder as the two left together. "You did good, son," Oberson told him. He hadn't noticed that Jerry had never returned his snub-nosed pistol.

* * *

Sleep eluded Jerry Winters for the rest of that night. He hadn't been able to get a second of shut-eye even after his wife finally stopped asking him about what happened outside. He wandered across the halls of Crawford aimlessly for the rest of that night. On his way out of his apartment, he spotted Tommy stood at the end of his hallway smoking a cigarette. He gave Jerry a dutiful nod as he disappeared back into the shadows. Jerry was wandering the streets of Crawford now, wondering what kind of a future the town had in store for him, his wife and his unborn child. He was deep in thought about all three of them when he spotted a hooded figure scaling one of the fences surrounding the perimeter. This fence was meant to keep walkers out, and humans _in_. The figure had almost climbed over the fence when Jerry called out to them. "HEY!" he cried loudly enough for them to hear, but hopefully not any walkers lurking nearby. The figure seemed startled. At first, they climbed even quicker. Then, they jumped down from the fence, landing swiftly on their feet like a cat, and approached Jerry, their identity still hidden by the darkness. The figure drew a tool from their backpack as they marched towards Jerry with large steps. Moonlight bounced off the ice tool's razor sharp edge as they raised their weapon high. "STOP!" Jerry cried, pulling both his pistols from their holsters quickly enough to stop the assailant in their tracks.

"Two guns?" Jerry heard them say as they began to chuckle slightly. He recognised the girl's voice immediately. "Probably a wise move, especially after all the people you've pissed off lately."

"Molly? Is that you?" He asked, tucking the guns back in their holsters.

"Yeah," Molly admitted. "It's me." He could see her face now, her eyes read from weeping endlessly. She had been mourning her sister.

"What are you doing out here?" He asked her as she slid her backpack off her shoulder and tucked the sharp ice tool away.

"What do you think?" Molly asked him rhetorically. He should have known. There was no reason for her to stay here after all.

"You're leaving? How did Oberson allow this?" Jerry had thought Oberson would have had Molly locked away for months for stealing that medicine, even though Dr Ashe had actually given it to her as part of their deal. But here she was.

"Oberson's the one who told me to leave," she explained, but Jerry was still confused.

"Weren't you supposed to be punished in some way?" He asked her.

"Yeah, I was. I guess he decided that watching my sister be gunned down in front of me and having to bury her corpse was punishment enough," she told him as she struggled to fight back her tears.

"Jesus, I'm sorry-" He tried to say.

"Don't. Just don't," she cut him off as she started to climb again. For a moment, Jerry was tempted to fetch his wife and join Molly as she fled Crawford, but then he realised how inappropriate that would be. He heard the ground meet her feet as she jumped and landed with a loud THUD. Before she fled, she turned to face Jerry through the fence. For a moment, Jerry thought that maybe she was going to say goodbye. Instead, she spit in his face. "For both our sakes, I hope we never meet again," she said before she turned to leave. Jerry watched Molly until the moment she vanished into the mist of darkness that surrounded the town. He wondered if they would ever meet again, and so did she.

* * *

When he climbed the steps back to his apartment, Jerry's heart began to race at the sight of their front door being wide open. When he approached the apartment, he saw that the apartment had been broken into. The door had been kicked open, explaining the broken pieces of wood and metal that littered the floor, and worst of all: Lillian was gone. He turned over the bed sheets and threw them aside, but it was no good. She wasn't here. The apartment was a mess. Their drawers and cabinets had been ransacked leaving empty bottles, cans and tins lying everywhere. Clothes, blankets and books and magazines also littered the floor. Jerry was panicking now, he breathed heavily and muttered threats to Oberson and his people as he searched every nook and cranny of the apartment. If they had so much as touched her, Jerry couldn't be sure what he would do. Lillian was not here, that was all Jerry could be sure of. When he turned to leave the apartment, he saw a suited figure standing in his doorway. It was Oberson. He smiled that same manic smile he always did whenever he was pleased with himself as Jerry charged towards him. Unaware of his own speed and strength, Jerry suddenly found himself with both his hand wrung around Oberson's neck. He had wrestled him against the wall and was almost choking him. Oberson tried to spit something out, but now was Jerry's time to talk. "Where is she?" He demanded from Oberson as he tried to kick and punch his way out of Jerry's grasp. He loosened his grip on Oberson, giving him a chance to catch his breath and eventually start answering questions.

"I assume you're talking about your beloved wife?" Oberson asked mockingly as he rubbed his sore neck. Jerry could see the joy he was getting out of this very well on his face.

"Of course I'm talking about my wife. Where is she?" He asked, clutching Oberson's neck again.

"Ahem," he heard someone clear their throat from behind him in a desperate attempt to get this attention. When he turned around, Jerry saw Tommy stood with two other familiar-looking men. The two men had been the same men that had held Molly when Jerry killed her sister. All three of them were followers of Oberon's, and all three of them were armed with either a baseball bat, an axe or an assault rifle, causing Jerry to release his grip on Oberson, allowing him to catch his breath once again.

Oberson tidied his suit as he fell in beside his men. Stood next to him, Oberson made Tommy look like a giant, and that wasn't easily done, but Oberson was not a tall gentleman. In fact, he wasn't much of a gentleman at all. After neatening his tie, Oberson spoke up.

"You should have told us sooner, Jerry," Oberson said with honest regret. "Much sooner. Now, you and your wife will be forced to suffer the consequences."

Oberson began to lead the three men and Jerry down the hallway when Jerry grabbed his arm and pulled him back. This alerted Tommy and the others, but Oberson reassured them with a hand gesture that suggested everything was fine. "Wait, Crawford," Jerry said calmly. "What are you going to do?" He asked, unsure of whether or not he really wanted to know the answer.

"What I have to," Oberson told him. He stared intently into Jerry's eyes as he continued to talk. "I want you to know, Jeremiah, that every action that I take, no matter how violent, is purely for the greater good of my people. For Crawford." Oberson then saluted Jerry before leading the three men down the hallway. Reluctantly, Jerry eventually followed.

Outside, another crowd had gathered, and Jerry had a sudden feeling of déjà vu. This day was never going to end. He followed Oberson, Tommy and his other two henchman as they bustled and pushed their way past the temperament members of the crowd, each of them shouting questions and demanding answers. When he emerged from the crowd, Jerry's heart stopped. His wife was knelt beside one of Oberson's henchman, the barrel of the shotgun in his hands pressed firmly against her temple. Jerry barked commands at the man immediately, ordering him to stand down and put his weapon away, but Jerry wasn't in charge anymore. Oberson stood beside him, admiring his work. "Go ahead," he told Jerry, who seemed confused. "Pull out your gun and do it," he told him. Then Jerry understood, and his heart beat faster than it had all day.

Jerry pulled out his gun in a flash of movement, but it wasn't Lillian he aimed at. He held the gun to Oberson's temple, alarming Tommy, his men and the crowd that had gathered around them. Jerry heard several guns click around him.

"Drop the fucking gun, Jerry!" He heard Tommy cry, but his eyes never left Oberson.

"Don't be stupid now," Oberson said calmly without making any sudden movements that might have startled Jerry. He barely even moved his pursed lips.

"Not killing you when I had the chance was stupid," he told Oberson as he began to sweat frantically. His hand began to shake and his 9 mil rattled in his hand. "I won't make that mistake again."

"Jerry…" He heard his wife say. He turned to meet her gaze. Even now, with tears dripping down her cheeks that messed up her makeup and made it run across her face, Lillian looked as beautiful as ever. "Just do it. Save yourself at least."

Jerry understood what his wife was saying. There was no need for them to all die. But Jerry simply couldn't picture life in Crawford without his wife. Silently, Jerry cursed himself to hell for all the lies he had told Lillian, for all the times he had been disloyal, and for ever taking her for granted. "Just let us go, Oberson. Please," he begged the man that had once been his friend. He hoped there was still a part of the friend he'd known left behind those cold, evil eyes Oberson now wore. But what happened next diminished those believes completely.

He waited for Oberson's response, but he was silent. Instead, all Oberson did was simply nod. He turned to see who Oberson had nodded to. It was the henchman who stood beside Lillian, his shotgun still held to her temple. He gave Oberson a nod back. Before the explosion of the shotgun had even registered with Jerry's ears, he saw the face of his wife disappear in a sudden burst of red. Blood spewed across the front row of the crowd as Lillian's head was torn apart in an explosion of smoke, blood and flesh. The next sound he heard was the sound of his wife's body hitting the ground as she fell limp and lifeless to the cobbled street. Her hand, still wearing her treasured wedding ring, reached out to Jerry. He wanted to run to Lillian and kiss her soft hands as he told her that everything would be okay, as he lied to her a final time. He wanted to hold her tight and apologise to her for everything. But instead, all Jerry could do was fall to his knees and scream. His scream shook the crowd, and Oberson even seemed afraid. He approached Jerry, and put a hand on his shoulder. He then knelt in front of Jerry, and snatched the Sheriff's badge that he had pinned to his shirt in Crawford's early days. As the sun began to rise and the residents returned to their homes, the worst day of Jeremiah Winters' life finally came to an end.

**TO BE CONTINUED.**

**Hope you all enjoyed! Be sure to let me know in a review what you thought of Part I of Tales of Crawford whether you want to write just a sentence or an entire essay! Depending on how much feedback you guys leave, Chapter One of Episode Two should be up next week. From then, chapters should be getting published twice a week. Part I of Tales of Crawford will be going up once Episode Two has been fully published (hopefully by the end of July), and we'll carry on from there. Just remember, the more feedback I get, the sooner new chapters go up, so let me know if you enjoyed, and why of course!**

**Thanks **

**-George :)**


	10. Episode II - Chapter One

Episode Two: Cry For Help

Chapter One: Bitten

**Previously on ****_The Walking Dead_****: After their camp is overrun by walkers, Clementine and the survivors are forced to flee the hilltop, but not before Donald is bitten and Tom's wife and daughter are killed. As they leave the camp behind in Tom's RV, the group are now forced to deal with Donald.**

Molly scanned the dark and gloomy hallway for any sign of walkers. It was empty – lifeless. Cobwebs decorated the hallway from one side to the other every few feet. Molly ducked and dodged her way through the cobwebs to avoid destroying them and depriving their owners of a home. At first, she walked straight past the room, but something drew her back. It was something that Molly noticed about the room's door as she passed it – the door was ajar. The door, which was now the focus of Molly's attention, was also missing the layer of dust that caked the rest of the room doors on that floor, and in the entire building as far as Molly could tell. She was about to call out to Ryan, but she decided that may not be the best idea when she considered the fact that the room in front of her may not be empty.

"Well, I guess I'm going to have to kick it down," Paul declared as he regained his breath. He was huffing and puffing with his hand on his knees having just tried to somehow push himself through the locked room door. Getting into the room was starting to become an obsession between the three of them. Todd giggled femininely at the thought of Paul trying to break down the door with his strength, which he had just proven to be very limited. Ryan, meanwhile, wondered why Paul was acting so macho when Molly, the only girl in their group, wasn't even around.

Ryan thought back to when the three of them had first met Molly. They were on their way to the coastline when they were surrounded by a herd of walkers. That was when Molly jumped in to help them. She took out three or four walkers, or "geeks" as she calls them, with her trusty ice tool "Hilda" in the process of saving their asses. Molly explained that the rooftops were a much safer way of getting across Savannah. She also told them that there were no boats left; another group had sailed away with the last one. From then on, the group had been scavenging for supplies across the city, and they had eventually made their way to here; The Marsh House.

THUMP! The loud noise of Paul's boot hitting the door hard brought Ryan back to reality. He laughed when he saw the door still stood strong and Paul was holding his leg with his teeth clenched in pain. Ryan and Todd both laughed hysterically together as Paul fell onto his backside, sucking in as he tried to hide the pain; although neither of them were sure whether it was his leg or the embarrassment that hurt him more. But when something grabbed his shoulder tight, Ryan screamed at the top of his voice shamelessly. He turned, with his hands pressed up against himself to make a puny and cowardly gesture, to see Molly standing there, with Hilda over her shoulder. Then, the whole group was laughing, including Ryan. Ryan tried to remember the last time all four of them had laughed together, but he couldn't remember, and then he laughed some more.

When the group finally remember where they were, they followed Molly back to this mysterious room she had found. Molly, eager to find out what was behind it, was the first to make it back to the door, still ajar. She looked back to see Ryan, Todd and Paul brush past the cobwebs blocking their way. They destroyed the cobwebs with their hands as they passed through them without giving what they were doing a second thought. Molly sighed, although a part of her couldn't believe she was giving so much thought to the idea of a few spiders being made homeless, especially when she had been fighting off the undead for the past few months. When the four of them had finally assembled in front of the door, as prepared as they could be to face whatever could be behind it, Molly pushed the door open with Hilda's butt end to reveal what was on the other side.

They slid into the room one by one. Molly kept Hilda raised until they were all inside, somehow she knew they would need it, and she was right. Todd and Paul's attention were immediately on the draws, cabinets and boxes in the room, praying that they would find one unopened and packed to the brim with goods to loot. Molly didn't like to call what they were doing looting; whoever had lived here certainly didn't need these things anymore, but she knew what it was like to have something precious taken from you all too well. Molly shut the door behind her as the rest of the group kept themselves busy. Paul picked up an abandoned bowling bag next. He inspected it carefully, but due to the low-light conditions he couldn't make out the bag's contents. But all became clear when Paul tipped the bag upside down, and a bloody rotted head fell from the bag and hit the floor with a thud.

The head's features could hardly be made out. Molly, Todd and Paul had gathered around the head, and as they stared into the walker's dead grey eyes, it stared straight back at them. Drool seeped from the walker's mouth through rotted yellow teeth, suggesting the thing hadn't been dead for long. Molly looked as though she was about to throw up when the head snarled at the group, causing each and every one of them to jump out of their own skin. It was still alive. The walkers tongue wiggled slightly as foam left its mouth. Now, Molly looked truly ready to vomit. Instead she turned away from the walker. She saw Ryan backing out of the next room, which she assumed was the bedroom. At first, she was happy to see him, and she even smiled slightly. But then she saw what Ryan was backing away from.

The walker swiped and clawed furiously at the air in front of Ryan, its claws missing his pointy nose by inches. Everything felt as though it was in slow-motion as it played out. Hilda was raised into the air as Molly charged towards the walker. She cried out something as she did so, but she couldn't remember what it was exactly – some kind of ridiculous battle cry. Molly threw the ice tool down through the air, and Hilda's point sank into the walker's head. Ryan was backed against the wall by this point, and he watched as all the remaining life left the walker. It's body tried to fall, but Molly was keeping the walker from dropping as Hilda's blade was still sunk into its head. She eventually pulled it free, spurting blood across her orange jacket, and the body fell to the floor limp and lifeless. Ryan was now sat on the floor with his back against the wall, still trying to work out what had just happened. Molly offered Ryan her hand. He took it, and she pulled him up until he was back on his feet. He dusted himself off and smiled at her, not sure whether to thank Molly or kiss her. She smiled back, and eventually let him have his hand back.

"Umm… Guys?" Paul said awkwardly, interrupting the moment between Molly and Ryan. "I found something."

In his hands, Paul was holding a walkie-talkie. He was fiddling with it, trying to get it to work. When Molly decided he had no idea what he was doing, she snatched the radio from him. She ended up doing the same as Paul had done, messing with its buttons and hoping for the best. Eventually, she opened up the back of the radio. She recognised the brand of batteries it used straight away, and pulled them out. She replaced them with some fresh ones out of a box of batteries she kept stashed in her backpack, knowing they would come in handy. As soon as the second battery was fit into its place, the walkie-talkie came to life. Molly held the red button and crossed her fingers.

"Hello?" she said, unsure of what kind of a reply she was expecting.

"…Hello…?" Another voice returned. It was a girl, she sounded as young as eight or nine years old. "Who is-" the girl's words were cut off by the loud and clear sound of a man's screams. She heard a thud from the other side as the walkie-talkie was obviously dropped and hit the floor. Molly could still hear the man's screams and the cries of several other people, all barking commands at each other. She heard another woman's high pitched scream, and eventually decided to let go of the button.

The room was silent once again. Molly lowered the walkie-talkie and looked around her. When they first heard that little girls voice, the group had looked overjoyed, all of their faces beaming optimistic and reassuring smiles. But now, Molly looked around her to see Ryan, Todd and Paul all looking uncertain and anxious. Paul was biting his lip, Todd was rubbing his forehead, and Ryan's head was bowed.

"Let's get out of here," Molly finally said in a desperate attempt to break the room's silence. She had hoped this girl and her group, whoever they were, may have been nearby and able to offer them some help, but it sounded like they needed help even more so than they did.

* * *

At long last, the RV came to a halt. The tires spat dirt behind them until they fell still. For a moment, all was quite. But then, the RV door slammed open. Lilly, with a rifle in her hands, came charging out of the door. Coach was slowly backing out of the RV, holding Donald's legs in his hands. Johnny was opposite him, his hands under Donald's arms. Between them, they carried Donald out of the RV and slowly lowered him to the ground outside, but not before Alice laid a blanket down for her husband to lie on. Clementine was watching from the window. She saw Alice kneel beside her husband. The tears didn't stop for a moment. She wiped her eyes to make way for the next set of tears, and then stroked her husband's cheek, trying to tell him that everything was going to be okay. In truth, she had no idea how things were going to be.

Christa was the last one to leave the RV. Omid still laid on the sofa, barely awake and still suffering from his leg wound that had opened up again. Christa had done her best to bandage the wound, but it was refusing to heal any quicker. Christa sat beside Clementine now, trying to put what was happening into words for the little girl.

"You need to stay with Omid," Christa told Clem, trying to keep her focus away from Donald. "He's hurt bad, Clem. Don't let him fall asleep." She said with a look of deadly seriousness.

"I won't," Clementine replied. She looked behind Christa to Omid, who was weakly raising an enthusiastic thumbs-up gesture at Clementine. It looked as though it had taken all of his strength to do so.

"And stay away from the windows," Christa ordered. Although she was unsure why, Clementine nodded.

When Christa left, Clementine was sat on the sofa bed with Omid's head on her lap. Christa smiled, and took a deep breath before she went to face the nightmare outside.

The whole group, minus Clementine and Omid, stood around Donald. He was breathing heavily, unable to keep his eyes open as the rain fell onto his face. Alice never let go of her husband's hand. Lilly checked the bullet count in her rifle every couple of minutes, and this was making Christa feel uneasy. Except for Lilly and Alice, none of the group had known Donald very well, but not one of them had been ready for this. Everything had changed the moment Donald revealed his bite to the group. Whatever happened to Donald now, only one thing laid certain with everybody there at that moment: nothing was going to be the same again.

Johnny was still catching his breath from lifting Donald's weight. When he was finally able to stand again properly, without having to rest against the RV for support, he took a wide look around him. He had parked the RV by the side of a dirt road. The road was slap-bang in the middle of two green fields. The first field Johnny had driven the RV through to get here, if you followed it through, you would eventually find the camp's ruins and a herd of walkers, which is why Johnny was driving in the complete opposite direction. The next field Johnny would have driven straight through, it sloped downwards and Johnny could see that on the other side of it was the highway, but a fence blocked their way. Johnny was looking for a path around it when it was found that Donald had been bitten. He hadn't stopped immediately however - he had no idea what to do, and he still didn't. Instead, he took Alex's hand and looked to Lilly for guidance.

All eyes were on her know, and she knew it. Everyone knew what had to happen next, but were too afraid to say the words. Nobody spoke a word, the silence had returned. All that could be heard was the sound of Alice sniffling as she allowed herself to cry. Lilly looked at Donald. He was still laid on his back, one hand on his chest and the other taken by his wife as she polished his wedding ring with her finger. Lilly eventually turned away, her eyes closed. A part of her hoped that when she opened them, she would be back at the Motor Inn with Lee, her father and the rest of the old group, back when things were so much simpler. But now, things were far from simple. She was here now, and the Motor Inn seemed like some kind of paradise that existed only in her dreams. She took a breath, and finally uttered the dreaded words that needed to be said: "Tom, go get your axe…"

**_Next time on The Walking Dead_****:** **The group are forced to deal with the situation with Donald, using extreme methods. Life for Clementine and the survivors will never be the same again after this. Meanwhile, Molly and her group run into some trouble in The Marsh House.**

**Hey guys! So, The Walking Dead is back! Hope you guys all enjoyed Part One of Tales of Crawford and of course this chapter, the first chapter in Episode Two. I'm happy to say that Episode Two is totally done! How soon I upload it just depends on feedback from you guys. So it's the usual drill. Feed me reviews! The sooner I hear back from you the sooner Chapter Two goes up!**

**Thanks guys!**

**-George**


	11. Episode II - Chapter Two

Episode Two: Cry For Help

Chapter Two: Lost

**Previously on ****_The Walking Dead_****: After their camp is overrun by walkers, Clementine and the survivors are forced to flee the hilltop. But when they discover that Donald has been bitten, they are forced to take drastic actions. Back inn Savannah, Molly leads a group of scavengers through The Marsh House, where they find Clementine's walkie-talkie, a tool that will soon save their lives.**

Chad was flicking through the pages of the latest issue of _Invincible_ when he saw the walker approaching the station. At least, it was the latest issue before corpses started walking – now it was nearly six months old. After what Chad had started calling "The Apocalypse" began, TV and Radio stations fell silent, Newspapers stopped being printed, and the Earth stood still, or Savannah did at least. But the Apocalypse had been going on without interruption for nearly half-a-year now, and Chad had a bad feeling it wasn't nearing its end anytime soon, and that Savannah wasn't the only place where the dead had stopped staying dead. Some days he would wake up and pray that the military would be at his doorstep to tell him that the Apocalypse was over and the dead had been sent back to their graves. But when Chad saw that walker stumble its way past a couple of gas pumps and slowly near his store, he decided that that day was not today.

Chad set the comic aside. He sighed a long and exaggerated sigh as he made his way to the store's entrance. The walker outside had interrupted his reading, although he had read that very same comic perhaps twelve times. The bell rang as Chad pushed the door open and marched out to face the walker. Without fear, he marched to face the walker, pulling a hatched from the back of his pants as he did so. The walker swiped at Chad as he raised the hatchet and forced it into the walker's skull. It took another couple of blows before the walker eventually fell. Chad pulled the hatched from its skull, and took a moment to bask in the moment's ambience. After deciding that he had to have been one of the best walker killers around, and that he should have comics written about him when this nightmare was over, he headed back inside his store. He was greeted back inside by the familiar ring of a bell as he picked up his comic where he left off and finished it for the thirteenth time.

* * *

Clementine felt herself jump when the RV door swung open again. A weary Omid must have heard it too, he began to murmur something in a tired voice and then drifted off to sleep again. Tom made a mess of the RV's table tops and cabinets, spreading tins, cans, magazines and other junk all over the place before finally finding what he had been looking for. He found it underneath his woolly jacket, now soaked with his wife and daughter's blood. He tested the weight of the axe as he held it upright in front of him, gripping it tightly with both hands. He turned around to see Clementine looking right at him, unsure of his intentions. Did he need something to chop wood for a fire with? From the sombre look in Tm's eye, Clementine somehow knew that that wasn't the case.

Tom was back, gripping the axe with both hands. When he returned, the rest of the group stood back minus Lilly, and of course Alice who was still holding onto her husband's hand for dear life. Tom wondered what was going on as he handed the axe to Lilly. But when Lilly, with her arms crossed, didn't move to take it, he looked around him and Tom realised all eyes were on him. Johnny and Alex were looking at him softly, Alex looked ready to cry. Christa was looking at him, but when Tom glanced back at her she looked at the ground instead. Alice looked at him with eyes that pleaded, maybe even begged him to do what they'd agreed upon. Lilly looked back at Tom with a stern expression on her face, and nodded. Tom nodded back, taking the task upon himself. It was time. He stood before Donald, who finally opened his eyes, and raised the axe into the air. The last shine of moonlight the group witnessed than night was reflected off of Tom's axe, nearly blinding Lilly. With his left hand Donald reached out and muttered something only Alice could hear. That was when Tom threw down the axe with all of his strength, as though he was chopping wood again. The horrifying noises that followed; the crunch of the axe sinking into Tom's thigh, Alice's harrowing screams, Donald's deep and hoarse cries, didn't prevent Tom from pulling the Axe back out of his thigh, raising it and letting it fall again. _Rinse and repeat_, Tom thought to himself sadistically. The axe crunched again as it sank into Donald's flesh, smashing his thigh bone like a mirror. Tom pulled the axe back and raised it again, dripping with blood and with pieces of flesh clinging to the metal, still reflecting the beautiful pale moonlight. As the cold metal sank into Donald's warm flesh a third time, the process of which once again failing to earn any kind of a reaction from Tom, Tom realised he was well and truly lost.

* * *

It took a few minutes for any of them to speak about what they had heard on the radio, and not one of them was sure where to start. They had made it to the stairwell, and were heading up to the second floor when Paul said: "So… What the hell do you think that was?", he wasn't exactly famous for being able to break the ice.

"I don't know," Molly said eventually, and it was the truest thing she'd said all day. Molly didn't know what to make of the little girl and the screams that followed her. She only knew that their day couldn't have possibly been going any better than theirs.

The four of them reached the second floor and turned to climb the stairwell further. Instead of another flight of stairs, they were faced with a pile of tables, chairs and drawers that blockaded the path to the next floor. "Looks like someone tried to keep the walkers out," Ryan suggested.

"Or maybe they were trying to keep them in," Paul pointed out. His theory was as good as any other, but that didn't stop them.

"C'mon," Molly said, leading them through the door to the second floor's hallway. "We can cut through here to the stairwell on the opposite side of the floor." It wasn't the best plan she'd had, but she was starting to think that coming to The Marsh House at all was a bad idea altogether. She wasn't sure what she was hoping to find higher up in The Marsh House, at this point it didn't really matter, but something at the back of her mind just wouldn't let her leave. Not yet.

* * *

The screaming finally stopped. As the rain continued to fall, Donald fell silent and slipped into a deep sleep. Christa moved forward until she could see what Tom had done. The leg had been removed. Tom had cut just below Donald's knee, a few inches above where he had been bitten. Now, all they could do was wait and pray. Pray that their plan worked, and Donald would recover. Alice was also quite now – the hardest part was over. Her husband had held her hand so tight it had turned beat red. She unwrapped his fingers and set his hand down. Lilly touched Tom's arm with her hand, but this seemed to frighten the man as though he were a timid child. He shook when he felt her touch. Lilly looked at the axe that he still held in his left hand. Lilly nodded at Tom and he dropped the axe finally.

"How do we know if it worked?" Alex asked from behind most of the group, he was still hiding in the shadows. With his finger in his mouth he looked very nervous about asking the question, but it was something that needed to be known.

"We don't," Lilly answered honestly, "All we can do is pray." Lilly still couldn't believe what was in front of her. When she saw the flesh where Donald's leg ended spray blood, she turned away and sighed. She couldn't help but keep asking herself why.

Johnny had been quick to tie his white shirt around Donald's wounded leg, even if it meant being shirtless in the rain. Alex couldn't complain, and Christa wasn't sure that she could either. Everyone had done their part when it came to helping Donald, it had even been Christa's idea, but they all struggled to feel good about it.

Christa could have sworn she had heard Clementine's voice at some point during the ordeal, but her eye's never left Tom. His attitude towards his actions had genuinely left her unnerved. She expected Tom to have dropped the axe and cried after what he had to do, but instead he just stood there – motionless and emotionless. That night left Tom changed. Christa couldn't put her finger on what had happened to him, but he was never the same again. When she turned to let the others into the RV she saw Clementine standing there still and stiff as the rain fell onto her and dripped down her oversized baseball cap. Christa gasped, hoping to any God there might be that the little girl hadn't been forced to witness a single second of the act that had just occurred outside of that RV. But as she held the little girl tight in her arms, noticing the walkie-talkie in her hands, she wondered what kind of a God would let something like this happen.

* * *

This hallway was just as gloomy as the last, and didn't lack the same sinister feel it gave off. They were on the second floor now, hoping it had more to offer them than the first in the way of supplies. Paul's words earlier had left the group feeling unsettled. He suggested the idea that perhaps whoever blocked the stairwell up with tables and chairs may have been trying to keep the walkers in, meaning that they were walking straight into their territory. Molly picked up the pace, as soon as she saw the green exit light that pointed to the stairwell, still glowing amidst all this gloom, she headed straight for it. She kept low as she took long strides to the stairwell, keeping her head from getting tangled in the many cobwebs that decorated the ceiling. Before she went too far ahead, she turned to see where the others had gotten to.

_I hope this is the _bathroom, Paul thought as he stood in front of those double doors, squirming and fidgeting as he tried to avoid thinking about how much he needed to pee. The others had walked straight past the double doors, but something about them grabbed Paul immediately. Even after wiping away the thick layer of dust coating the door's glass, Paul still couldn't see through. On each side of the doors to the room there stood a plant pot, but the small tress inside each had died and fallen crooked. The entrance to the room alone reeked of death, but Paul was still curious to see what lingered behind those doors. His hands teased the door handles - he was ready to pull the doors open together to reveal the room's contents. The oak doors were calling to be opened now, and Paul took a deep breath. He grasped each of the handles tight and pulled back with all of his strength. When the doors opened, it took a while for Paul to call out to the others and alarm them of what was hidden in that room, but Paul knew one thing for sure: he didn't have to pee anymore.

"OH MY GOD!" Todd screamed when he saw the swarm of walkers. He was walking alongside Ryan, trying to catch up to Molly, when he heard Paul's cries. He wasn't sure what Paul shouted, but by the time he turned around, Todd could see the swarm of walkers marching out of the room closer and closer to Paul. A flash of orange flew past Todd and then he saw Molly take down one of the walkers. With Hilda buried in the skull of the first walker, Molly brutally punched the closest walker to her with the back of her fist. She pulled Hilda free – ready to fight. When Todd finally pulled himself back into the moment, he ran to Molly. Paul kept moving back until his back was against the wall, his eyes were still processing the display before him. Molly took down another couple of walkers and kicked another one back until the crowd of angry geeks had been pushed back into the lobby. Todd and Ran were already at the doors, ready to slam them in the geeks' faces. The last walker before Molly was on all fours. She kicked it in its chin, dislocating its jaw and sending it flying back into the lobby. It landed with a thumb in the middle of the crowd and hissed at Molly through venomous teeth one last time before the lobby doors were slammed in its face. Molly immediately weaved Hilda through the door's handles, keeping it shut for good, and the nightmare locked away.

The three of them were still catching their breath when Todd remembered Paul. He was happy to see Paul sat on the opposite side of the hallway, even though he looked ready to drop dead and join the walkers in the lobby. When Todd finally got his breath back, he smiled at Molly, whom he knew often got a joy out of taking walkers down. But this time it was different, Molly didn't smile back. This time, they almost hadn't made it. Todd realised then that they would have to start being much more careful.

"FUCK!" Ryan cried from beside him. "MOLLY! LOOK OUT!" Then, Todd saw it.

The walker wailed its arms at Molly from behind her. When she turned around, she saw how disgusting and vile a creature it was. It's jaw hung loosely, partly dislocated, and it's eyes stared deep into her as it bared its sharp bloody teeth – Molly wouldn't have been the creature's first meal that day. Todd wasted no time in taking Hilda, reaching over Molly's shoulder, and bashing the creature skull with Hilda's hilt. When the geek dropped to the carpet, Todd passed Molly and threw the ice tool down on its skull, this time using the sharp end. It sunk into the geek's brain, disabling it permanently. Having saved Molly's life, Todd thought that he may have looked pretty heroic, and he would have had he not embarrassed himself in the seconds that followed. He tried to tug Hilda back out of the creature's skull, but it was well-jammed into it. He pressed his foot against the walker's head to give himself some strength, pulled again, and freed Hilda from the walker's skull. However, the pull took him off his feet and he ended up falling onto his butt pathetically. When he got back on his feet, he realised he had removed the walker's head completely. Todd offered the ice tool back to Molly, but she put her hands up and said "Keep it. You just saved my ass with it after all." She smiled as Todd wiped Hilda, his newest treasure, clean using his shirt.

What followed reminded Todd that nowhere was safe, and that the four of them would never find somewhere completely safe so long as the dead were still walking. The first clue that everything wasn't as peachy as he thought came from the look on Molly's face. Todd was halfway through telling her an extremely cheesy joke when her face dropped – she looked terrified. Todd wondered if she'd heard the joked before, and reconsidered telling it. But then he realised that Molly was looking at something behind him, and before he knew it she had snatched Hilda out of his hands to tackle the walker that had just grabbed Paul. By the time Todd was brave enough to turn around and face the situation behind him, the walker was on top of Paul. He saw the beast tear a sheet of flesh from Paul's neck after it sank its teeth deep into him. It chewed Paul's flesh and was going in for another bite when Molly swung the ice tool down and cleaved through the walker's head. The walker fell beside Paul, but he didn't get back on his feet like Todd hoped. Instead. Paul lied there, trying to keep the blood from oozing out of the hole in his neck. With both hands, he pushed against his neck, but the crimson liquid kept flowing. A loud crashing noise made Todd turn around and see the lobby doors slam open. A crowd of walkers burst through the doors, and that was when all hell broke loose.

Todd watched Paul roll on his back, like a turtle that had gotten stuck, as the blood kept flowing from the gash in his neck. Molly stood in front of him, unsure of how she was supposed to feel. She had seen so many people die in the last six months, but she never got used to it. Ryan zoomed past Todd and to Molly. He grabbed her hand tight and pulled her away from Paul and down the hallway. For a moment, Todd felt jealousy, but when he turned to see the swarm of walkers rapidly approaching him, the familiar feeling of fear returned. The adrenaline pumping through his veins, he chased Molly and Ryan, who had already made it to the end of the hallway and through the door to the stairwell. Todd never looked back, but if he had, he would have seen his friend Paul being slowly devoured by walkers as he became lost in the swarm of hungry carnivores.

As soon as he made into the stairwell, where Molly and Ryan were waiting for him, Todd slammed the door behind and put his back against it; partly to reinforce it and partly due to the fact that he couldn't bear to stand any longer. When he was done catching his breath, he looked at Ryan and Molly, unsure of where to start. Where had it all gone wrong? Ryan's arm was around Molly who was brushed up closely against him Todd was angry, but didn't let it show. He felt guilty feeling jealous towards the two of them when he had just watched his friend die. He wiped the sweat away from his brow and tried to go through what had just happened in his head. Right now, he wanted nothing more than to punch Ryan right in the nose after he had ran away with Molly instead of helping Paul. And now Paul was gone, and a room-full of walkers had them trapped. But when Todd saw that the stairwell, leading up to the third floor and beyond, was clear and unblocked, Todd made his way up the stairs to the next floor. As he took to the stairs, Todd wasn't sure whether or not Ryan and Molly were following him – at that point, he didn't care.

* * *

That morning at the _Shop-And-Drive_ gas station was the same as any other for Chad. He would wake up, check the station for walkers and remove any roamers that had wandered too closely, eat some cereal and find another crossword to do. Chad knew that when he did run out of crosswords, he would go truly insane. He could only pray that the government and their helicopters and tanks would have rolled in to save the day and the city by then. The gas station was in a desolate location, far out of the city, but not far enough that Chad couldn't see Savannah from his store. He hoped to God every day that there was still some life left in that city. Chad hadn't interacted with another human being for almost half a year now. The long lost feeling of hope finally returned to Chad when he saw an RV approach the station from the south. Chad wanted to cheer, but before he did so, he grabbed the shotgun placed by the counter, and checked to see if it was still loaded.

**Next time on ****_The Walking Dead_****: After the shocking events of ****_Chapter Two_****, the group make their way out of Savannah. When they stop at a ****_Shop-And-Drive_**** gas station. the group meets Chad. It's here that the group make some startling realisations about themselves and each other. Lilly and Chad clash, with tragic consequences.**

**Hey guys! Big thanks to everyone who has favourited/followed/ this story so far. An even bigger thanks to those of you who have reviewed The Walking Dead: Season Two! I'm currently working on Episode Three, but all of Episode Two is ready to be uploaded! So, here's another one of my famous ultimatums. THREE REVIEWS and I upload the next TWO chapters on TUESDAY! So get typing, whether you want to leave a sentence or a whole essay on why you loved/hated it (hopefully you loved it). ;)**

**See you guys soon!**

**-George**


	12. Episode II - Chapter Three

Episode Two: Cry For Help

Chapter Three: Chad

**Previously on ****_The Walking Dead_****: After their camp is overrun by walkers, Clementine and the survivors are forced to flee the hilltop. But when they discover that Donald has been bitten, they are forced to take drastic actions. Tom removes Donald's leg with an axe, hoping to prevent the fatal infection from spreading, all whilst Clementine is watching. Over at a nearby ****_Shop-And-Drive_****, Chad spots an RV approaching the gas station, the first visitors he's received in a long time, and grabs his shotgun.**

They had been driving for nearly an hour when Alex spotted the small flat building at the side of the lonesome highway. Perhaps it wouldn't have taken them long if the highway road hadn't been littered with cars; each one missing an owner and starting to gather cobwebs. Once he made out the letters above the small glass building, and the gas pumps sitting in front of it, Johnny pulled into the dirt road that led to the station. He was making his best attempt to park the RV against one of the station's pumps when he heard the RV's door open.

Lilly was out of the RV before it had even fully come to a halt. She marched out of the door with her rifle in its sling over her left shoulder, and her pistol grasped tightly in both hands. The rest of the group watched as Lilly prowled towards the store below the large letters that read: SHOP AND DRIVE. Lilly held her breath as she slipped through the gas pumps between her and the door to the store, keeping an eye out for walkers and other dangers. There was fair amount of walkers surrounding the gas station, easily over fifty, but they were so spread out that one could easily slip through them. They would only be a threat as one collected group, but these walkers didn't exactly think so strategically, or so Lilly thought.

As she slowly approached the door, hung on which was a double-sided sign reading: CLOSED, Lilly turned to see the RV had stopped in its tracks. She caught eyes with Johnny in the driver's seat – he seemed lost as he gazed across the green and summery fields surrounding the gas station. A sudden high-pitched bell-ringing made Lilly turn back to the store door, which was now wide open. In the doorway stood a short and plump young man. His hair went down to his chin, and hazel sideburns smothered his cheeks. He wore a tank top vest, dirty with blood and sweat. However, right now Lilly's attention was on the shotgun that the man now had raised at Lilly.

It had been almost 6 months since Chad had even seen another woman, so Lilly was certainly a sigh for sore eyes. But that didn't keep Chad from keeping his shotgun firmly raised, with the barrel pointed at her belly. The woman was crouched down, causing Chad to believe she was planning on sneaking past him and stealing some supplies. If he hadn't seen her, maybe she'd have even tried to kill him in his sleep. The thought caused Chad to take the safety off of his shotgun. He held it tight with his eye down the sight of weapon as he barked a question at Lilly.

"What do you want? You tryin' ta steal from me?" Chad growled in a grisly southern accent.

Lilly looked behind her, hoping the rest of the group had already come to her aid. But she saw nobody. The RV was still there however, so she was at least grateful that her so called "friends" hadn't abandoned her just yet.

"I'm sorry for sneaking up on you," Lilly apologised as she slowly stood up, her hands raised to avoid panicking Chad. "We just need some gas."

Something behind Lilly caught Chad's eye. "That lil' girl over there yours?" He asked without taking either of his hands off his treasured gun.

Lilly turned slowly. She saw Clementine's peeping out of the RV door. When she realised the two had seen her, Clementine opened the door all the way. Christa stood beside her.

"Yeah, she is." Lilly lied through her teeth to Chad, hoping it would grant her her life.

Chad lowered his gun, taking one of his hands off of it. He waved at Clementine and smiled, revealing missing teeth. Clementine then waved back, but she didn't find it so easy to smile.

* * *

Lilly followed Chad into the store and heard the bell clang as she pushed through the glass door. Clementine, Tom, Johnny and Alex all followed, curious to see what the _Shop-And-Drive_ had to offer. Lilly followed Chad back to the counter. He sat back in his chair and put his legs up once again, letting his guests make themselves at home. The store was made up of three aisles. The first ended with the counter and included miscellaneous products like chewing gum, crossword books and magazines. Clementine even spotted some batteries. Clementine jumped at the sight of the batteries, her walkie-talkie had died moments after hearing a voice on the other side. She remembered that moment clear as day. She was still inside the RV whilst the other were trying to help Donald. Christa had told Clementine to stay inside the RV, but when she heard another voice coming from the radio, Clementine wanted to show Christa herself. But she had opened the RV door just in time to see what the others had done to Donald, and that image still haunted Clementine.

Outside, Christa watched Clementine through the store's window as she topped up the RV's tank with fuel from the closest gas pump to them. She had left Omid in the care of Alice, who was now balancing her husband and Omid alone. At the same time, Coach stood on watch for any walkers. Many zombies circled the gas station, but so far none had drifted to near to threaten the group. Christa then looked at Lilly, who was keeping Chad's eyes on her whilst Christa took some gas from under his nose. She began to fill one of the empty gas cans using the fuel pumps, and then her thoughts drifted to Lilly. She wondered if she could be trusted, as she had only met her a couple of days ago. But then Christa remembered, the whole group was made up of strangers. She was just glad that Clementine was finally safe. She would do anything to keep her from harm. She had to – she had made a very important promise to a dear friend. Christa was then jolted by a sudden throbbing from inside of her. She put her hand on her belly, and felt a second kick. Although the pain was great, Christa knew what it signified, and it made her weep with joy.

Back inside the station, Johnny and Alex explored the store's second aisle. Most of the shelves were bare, but the two spotted the occasional loaf of bread and tin of vegetables – nothing that excited either of them. The two were silent. There was so much they needed to talk about, but this was not the time or the place. Alex then felt something tug the back of his jacket softly. He turned to see Clementine stood their innocently. Johnny then turned also, and got on one knee when he saw her so that his height didn't intimidate the little girl. Alex did the same, and listened to what she had to say.

"Could you get me some batteries?" She asked the two boys, who she now looked to as siblings after their time on the road.

"Just take them, Clem," Johnny insisted. "Nobody will mind."

"But ask the man at the counter first," Alex said, slight patronisingly. The two of them took Clementine to the counter where Chad and Lilly talked.

"So, how long have you been out here?" Lilly asked Chad, who was barricading himself from any social interaction with one of his comic books.

"How long ago did the dead start walking?" Chad answered her question with a question as he flicked through his book. Lilly thought about the question, deciding it had to have been a little under six months since the outbreak. She realised Chad had been all alone this entire time, which was probably why he made for such a poor conversationalist.

"Hey, you mind if we take a couple of packs of these batteries?" Johnny asked. Lilly hadn't seen him, Alex and Clementine approach the counter, but she was glad to see them all together.

"That'll be five bucks," Chad spat out, still not taking his eyes off his comic.

Johnny laughed, assuming Chad was joking. He stopped when Chad finally put the comic book down, and showed just how serious he was. "You're joking, right?" He asked.

"Do I look like a comedian to you?" He said, holding out his hand. Tom had also just showed up after finding nothing of interest in the frozen aisle, which had been completely sacked of any meats or other food.

"What good is our money now?" Alex asked, struggling to understand Chad's logic.

"I get people like you coming in here all the time," Chad explained, "People who have obviously been through a lot to get here. By the time they show up, simple things like batteries or fuel or damn bottles of water are like diamonds in a turd. I see people look at fresh, clean water like they've never seen anything like it, and that's how I know that I don't want anything to do with the world out there. Sooner or later, the military are gonna show up and sort out this mess once and for all, and you people won't believe that you resorted to cannibalism and killing each other to stay alive. There are people out there who have done truly evil things to survive, so don't act like _I'm_ the bad guy just because I want some money in my pocket when things do get back to normal. And they _will_ get back to normal."

They were all silent for a long time after what Chad said. Lilly considered what Chad had said whilst Alex looked sorry he'd asked. As for Tom, a smug smile showed that he was happy to see that he wasn't the only one foolish enough to think that being rescued wasn't out of the question just yet. Eventually, it was Johnny who pulled a five dollar bill from his wallet, and placed it in Chad's had that had remained out through his entire speech. Chad put the bill in his cash machine as though he was living a typical Sunday afternoon at work. He tipped his hat at his customers one by one as they left.

Before he left, Alex turned to Chad. "Does this place have a toilet?" He asked him.

"Yeah. Door to the right at the end of the third aisle," Chad replied pointing to his right.

Alex headed to the third aisle and eventually found the big red door Chad spoke of.

Everybody had left the store now. Clementine walked back to the RV with Johnny, and Tom followed them a few steps behind. However, Lilly had spotted something on her way out, and was inspecting it still whilst the others headed back to the RV.

Chad noticed Lilly unfolding the map of Savannah as he counted the money in his cash machine. "That's two bucks. One –fifty if you have a store card," Chad joked. He laughed at himself as he finished counting his profits. When he looked back up, he noticed Lilly was about to open the store door and walk out. Chad grabbed his shotgun as he swiftly slipped around the counter. With both hands he raised his gun at Lilly for the second time within the hour. She still had her back turned to Chad when he cocked his gun and yelled at her to stop. When Lilly finally turned, Chad could see that she was smiling, and that made him very nervous.

"I hope you were going to pay for that," Chad said, still unsure why Lilly was smiling at him.

"You're not going to shoot me," Lilly told Chad. "If you do, you'll draw every walker within a mile from here to you, and your money will be no good then."

Chad realised what Lilly was saying, and he slowly began to lower his gun as Lilly stuffed the map into the back of her trousers. Lilly then opened the door, and heard the bell ring once again. It was music to her ears – the sound of victory. But the sound that followed took her completely by surprise. The first thing she heard was the glass of the store's window shatter. Blood was sprayed across the tiny fragments of glass that hit the floor and shattered into even smaller pieces. Chad dropped his gun, and held his neck with both hands. He fell onto his behind, and leaned back against the counter, blood flowing from his neck. The bullet had only grazed his neck, but that hadn't stopped blood from pouring from Chad's wound. He choked as he tried to put pressure on his neck. Lilly ran to him, putting both her hands around his neck. The bullet wound was deeper than she'd thought. Chad wasn't going to make it. Lilly turned to call for help, but she was silent when she saw Alex stood with his gun still raised and smoking from the bullet he had just fired.

* * *

"What the fuck did you do?" Lilly screamed at Alex, who was still motionless after shooting Chad. Blood was still pouring from his neck, but Lilly was more concerned about the dozens of walkers the sound would surely attract. She had hoped that after the incident on the hilltop, Alex would have learned. But some people obviously never did. She sighed as she let go of Chad's neck, realising there was nothing she could do. "I'm sorry," she said. She got back on her feet and headed for the door. Alex looked at Chad, and wondered if he should apologise too. In the end, Alex left without saying a word.

Alex watched as Lilly climbed aboard the RV, slamming the door behind her. When Alex reached the RV, he immediately began pounding on the door. He looked around him, he could already see the walkers surrounding the site from every angle. The door opened, and Johnny offered Alex a hand. He grabbed it and was pulled into the RV. Tom slammed his foot down onto the acceleration and sent the RV back on the dirt road, turning its back on Chad and the _Shop-And-Drive_. Clementine looked out the rear window of the RV where she saw something crawl out of the store door. At the time, she thought it was a walker, but she later realised that is had been Chad, likely cursing them all for leaving him to die.

He pulled himself out of the store and onto the concrete ground, leaving a trail of blood from inside the store to the ground between the store and the first set of gas pumps. When he made it there, Chad realised he couldn't make it any further. He saw blurs of walkers approaching from every direction. He knew eventually they would crowd around him and slowly devour him. _I won't become one of them_, he thought to himself. _I can't_. He opened his shotgun, which he had carried all the way out there. There was one bullet left inside. For about a minute, Chad laid on his back and was simply alone with his thoughts. But when he heard the groans of the walkers grow nearer, he knew he would have to make a choice soon. He was going to die, he knew that much. But how he died was up to him.

**Next time on ****_The Walking Dead_****: After Paul's death, Molly and her group make a desperate call for help to Clementine and her group. After losing their home at the hilltop, the group of survivors argue over whether or not to return to Savannah and help Clementine's friends. Many of the group's members clash, and chaos follows. Molly and her friends are quickly running out of time, but how can Clementine and her group hope to save them if they can't even work together?**

**Thanks to everyone who left feedback on my last chapter update. Although I didn't reach my aim of reviews, I did hit 1,000 views, which is crazy! So thanks everyone again for reading. Chapter Four is ready to be uploaded, so if you want to see it go up today, leave a REVIEW.**

**Take Care**

**-George**


	13. Episode II - Chapter Four

Episode Two

Chapter Four: Cry For Help

**Previously on ****_The Walking Dead_****: After being forced out of their camp by a herd of walkers and defusing the situation with Donald and his bite by cutting off his leg, the group encounter Chad at the ****_Shop-And-Drive_****. There, Clementine picks up some fresh batteries and Lilly finds a map. Meanwhile, after losing Paul to the walkers, Molly, Todd and Ryan must carry on moving through The Marsh House before they catch up to them.**

Todd had marched ahead of Molly and Ryan now, who were still climbing the flight of stairs below him. Ryan had his arm over Molly, who was still in shock after their recent encounter with the walkers and losing Paul. They hadn't said a word to each other since then, but Todd was sure he had heard Ryan whisper to Molly as they made their way up the stairwell. He was getting paranoid, suspecting that Ryan was whispering about him. He tried to ignore his feelings of jealousy, and enjoy the good luck the three of them were finally starting to have. The stairwell had been clear for the last couple of floors, meaning they hadn't had to cut across any hallways and risk running into walkers. However, this hadn't stopped Todd from sighing loudly every time he saw Ryan hold Molly close. Finally, Molly and Ryan left Todd's mind when he realised the stairs didn't go any further. He had reached the end of the stairwell. Above the door ahead of him hung a green fire exit light that still shone bright filling Todd with a feeling he never thought he'd feel again: hope.

Her and Ryan had fallen far behind Todd now, who had marched ahead and had maybe even made it to the roof already. Molly wouldn't have blamed him if Todd had decided to leave them both behind; they had done the same to Paul. The two didn't say a word about Paul, but every couple of minutes Ryan would whisper to her the same question: "Are you okay?" But the only answer he'd gotten had been an uncertain and unconvincing nod. Ryan was holding Molly close to him, but her hands were in her pockets. She thought Ryan was sweet, but she couldn't bring herself to say anything that might hurt Todd or seem disrespectful to Paul. She was starting to realise why she didn't travel with groups; people could never get along. She had considered staying with Lee and his group, and maybe even taking their boat out with them, but she saw what happened when they tried to be civil; they tore themselves apart instead. She remembered how the old man Kenny had almost murdered the cute kid with the blonde hair, Ben was it? That was when she realised: travelling in groups never works out. She was wondering what might have happened to Lee and his group when her and Ryan finally caught up to Todd. He was stood in front of the large metal door that looked as though it hadn't moved for centuries. They had found their exit.

The door soared open after a swift but powerful kick from Ryan. The kick almost forced the door off its hinges, but Todd was still able to close it behind them as he, Ryan and Molly stepped out onto the roof of The Marsh House. Save for a few rusty pipes that showed their ugly and grim heads as they poked out of the roof, the ground beneath their feet was mostly flat. Ryan was quick to take a seat on the ground, his arms and legs spread out as though he was ready to fall asleep, but he remained sat up. Molly looked around the roof cautiously, expecting a walker to jump out at them at any moment. Hilda was still stuffed into her backpack, but her itchy finger looked ready to grasp for it at any second. The sounds of a beeping and a click then gained Todd's attention. At first, he wasn't sure what it was and looked around him for a clue. Then he remembered the walkie-talkie they had found in one of the rooms that Molly had trusted him with. What they had heard on the other side hadn't been good, and they hadn't heard from the girl since, but now it sounded like someone was trying to reach out to them.

"Hello?" A hopeful voice said through crackles of static. Todd could already tell it belonged to the same little girl. He held the radio to his mouth and pressed the red button to reply immediately.

"We're here! Can you hear me? Who is this?" He asked all at once, unsure which question would be answered first. Molly and Ryan had obviously heard him speaking to the girl and had circled around him to hear her response.

"I'm Clementine," She replied, answering his third question. "Who is this?"

"I'm Todd. Todd Phillips," He answered back happily. "It's nice to meet you Clementine."

* * *

Clementine held the walkie-talkie close as she listened to the man's words. She was sat on the sofa in the RV with Omid and Christa beside her opposite Tom, Lilly and Coach. Johnny and Alex remained in the driver's cabin, and Alice sat beside her husband at the back of the RV. Donald laid down as Alice changed his bandages. Clementine felt as though everyone's focus was on her, and that she would have to choose her next words very carefully. Before she could reply however, she heard rumblings from the other side of the radio. She could hear a woman's voice now, questioning Todd. "Did you say Clementine?" She heard a voice ask. "Clementine? Is that you?" The woman asked after snatching the radio from Todd.

"Um…" Clementine struggled to reply. She looked around her for an answer, but no one was sure what to say. Before she knew it, Christa had snatched the walkie-talkie out of Clem's hands.

"Who is this?" Christa demanded.

Molly recognised her voice immediately. "Christa? Is that you? Is Clementine with you?"

"Molly.." Was all Christa could manage, struggling to believe pure coincidence had brought them back together. "Yeah, it's me. Clementine's here."

Clementine grabbed the radio again, and held it to her mouth. "Molly!" She exclaimed. "Where are you? Are you okay?" She asked all at once.

"I'm still in Savannah, and no, we're pretty far from okay." Molly confessed, looking around her. From the cold, tired and mopey looks on their faces, it looked like Ryan and Todd were both in agreement. "We need help, Clem."

* * *

Alice rubbed her husband's sweaty forehead as she listened to Clementine's conversation with the stranger on the radio. It sounded like Clementine knew her, but that didn't stop Alice from feeling uneasy. Her and her husband had only just managed to make it out of Savannah alive, the last thing either of them wanted was more trouble. Donald had been slipping in and out of sleep since Tom had cut off his leg. Even though what Tom had done had saved her husband's life, Alice still found herself resenting Tom for it. Now, she was hearing the group talk about turning the RV around, heading back to Savannah, and finding Clementine's friends. This, Alice would not stand for.

* * *

"We're at The Marsh House in Savannah," Molly explained to Clem over the walkie-talkie, her breath steaming in the cold night air. "Paul's dead, and the walkers have us trapped on the roof," she concluded, assuming Clementine knew what to do with all of this information. She looked around her, at Ryan and Todd, both of whom were just as anxious to get a reply as she was, pointing their ears to the radio.

"They're at The Marsh House," Molly heard Clementine tell someone in her group. Molly wondered if she was still travelling with Lee, Kenny and Ben as well as Christa and Omid.

"Do you know where that is?" Somebody, it sounded like Christa, asked Clem. Molly hoped that someone in their group knew, as Molly wouldn't know how to direct them to it. The four of them had stumbled across the house almost accidentally.

"Yeah, I do!" Clementine said with confidence, making Molly smile. Upon hearing Clem's response, Ryan held Molly tight and rubbed her shoulder warmly, glad to hear some good news for once. He was so excited, he even leaned in and kissed Molly's cheek, which made her smile even more.

"Does anyone have a map?" Molly heard Christa ask the group. Each of them replied with a "nope" and the occasional "sorry". Molly didn't recognize any of the voices, but then someone else spoke up.

"I have one," Lilly said, though Molly did not recognize her.

Things were sounding more and more hopeful by the second. Molly trusted that at least one of the people travelling with Clem was a capable fighter, otherwise they wouldn't have survived for so long.

Clementine must have taken her finger off the radio's trigger, as she didn't get back to Molly. A few minutes later, she tried calling out to Clementine through the walkie-talkie, but she got no reply. Molly insisted that she must have left it somewhere and forgotten about it, or maybe the batteries had died, but when they reached an hour later, Molly wasn't so sure. All she hoped was that Clementine was okay.

* * *

"I have one", Lilly pulled a map out her trousers and unfolded it as she got on her feet. She was about to hand it to Christa when somebody snatched it out of her hands. Beside her, Tom stood, towering above her. He chewed his cheeks as he looked coldly at Lilly.

"Now hold on just one fuckin' minute ," He spat at the group in a high-pitched and humorous tone. "Are we seriously considering heading into Savannah?"

"Tom, those people will die out there!" Christa insisted. She thought carefully about her wording in front of Clementine, but she realised that Clementine had probably seen more death than anyone in that RV.

"Who the fuck cares?" Tom cried out blatantly. "People die every day! _They_ die, but _we_ move on! It's how this world works!" He insisted. Christa could see he was clearly thinking about his wife and daughter.

"Molly's my friend!" Clementine finally spoke up, surprising even herself. "We don't leave friends behind!"

Tom sighed. Although he agreed with Clementine, he didn't know these people, and leaving them to die wouldn't have fazed him in the slightest. "Sorry, kid. But I've had enough of new people," Tom concluded. And then, without batting an eye lid, Tom stretched the map out with both hands and tore the sheet of paper in half.

Tom sat back down casually, as though nothing had just happened. The rest of the group were silent, unsure what had come over him. Tom was never the most pleasant man to live with, but this was something else. Something wasn't right.

"What the fuck did you just do!?" Omid cried out, breaking the silence.

"You watch your mouth you little shit," Tom told him.

"What is going on out here?" Alex asked as he stumbled out of the driver's cabin. He tried to balance himself as the RV rocked him from side to side. Alex and Johnny had missed the entire conversation, so the group understood his confusion, but that didn't stop Tom from continuing to act so hostile.

"These idiots are considering turning back because some bitch with a radio called for help," Tom replied. Surprisingly, although Alex still had countless questions, his response had mostly summed up the last few minutes.

"Who called you? Who needs help?" Alex asked curiously.

"A girl called Molly," Christa answered. "We met her in Savannah." She didn't go on, however, it was a long story after all.

"And there was a boy with him," Clementine went on. "There might have been others too. His name was Todd…"

"Todd?" Alex repeated the name back to Clementine, just to make sure. For some reason, it had gotten his undivided attention. "Todd who?"

"He told me his last name," Clementine said, trying to remember. "It was Todd…. Todd… PHILLIPS! Todd Phillips!" She said happily, proud of herself for remembering.

Alex looked stunned. "We have to turn around," he said. This gained everyone's attention, but Tom replied with nothing more than a sigh.

"What are you yammering on about now?" Tom said. He was laid back in his seat, looking ready to fall asleep.

"I know Todd! We went to College together, but we split up when Savannah was evacuated," Alex explained. "If he's in Savannah, and he's in trouble, we have to help him!"

"And why is that?" Tom asked, not seeing a point to Alex's anecdote.

"What do you mean?" Alex questioned Tom, he didn't feel as though he had to say anything more than what he just said. "We can't just let him and the others die out there!"

"You didn't seem so concerned about my daughter when you and your boyfriend poisoned her," he said calmly. That was when he sat back up, staring at Alex with threatening eyes. And just like that, the entire RV was silent again.

* * *

"So it's true," Tom said as he stood back up putting himself to-toe-with Alex. "I had my suspicions, but I didn't really think you two would ever sink that low."

"Tom, I swear to God-" Alex tried to cut in.

"Don't swear to God, son! He can't help you now!" Tom screamed at Alex, spitting all over the boy's face as he backed away from Tom. "SWEAR TO ME!" He threw his right fist at Alex with all of his might and sent him straight to the floor.

"ALEX!" Johnny shouted to him from the driver's seat. He slammed down the brakes, but kept turning to see what was happening behind him.

"Tom, I swear to you," Alex said through bloody teeth, "She wasn't supposed to die." Alex took a pause, his eyes circling around the room. He had not choice but to tell the complete and honest truth. "_You _were," he finally admitted, deciding honesty was the best policy.

Johnny saw Tom open the door of the RV, even though it hadn't fully come to a stop yet. That didn't stop Tom from picking up Alex by the back of his collar, grasping the back of his trousers with his other hand, and hurling Alex out of the RV.

The RV couldn't have been doing much more than 5 miles per hour when Alex was thrown, but the fall still hurt like hell. His face hit the ground, and his mouth filled with blood and dirt immediately. He tried to push himself up. With all of the strength he had left, Alex pushed against the ground, but he only collapsed a few seconds later, and relived the fall all over again. He spat blood out of his mouth – he was sure he spat out a couple of teeth at the same time that Tom had knocked loose. He rolled onto his back, and just for a minute, took a second to admire the night sky. For a moment, there was peace, and then he heard Johnny cry out.

"ALEX!" Johnny screamed as Tom marched out of the RV. Johnny tried to chase after him, but Lilly was blocking the doorway, letting Tom do his work. Work she felt needed to be done.

Alex was still smiling at the stars when Tom got on his knees and sat on top of him. For a moment, Tom just stared at Alex, waiting for him to say something. But Alex was silent, and when Tom's fist came hammering down as the first raindrops started to fall that night, he did not scream. The crackling of the storm covered the sounds of bones breaking. And even when Tom raised his fist again, Alex refused to scream.

**Next time on ****_The Walking Dead_****: Things spiral out of control when Tom confronts Johnny and Alex about the circumstances of his daughter's death. Johnny is forced to face the consequences of his actions, and the other members of the group must decide whose side they are on. How will they react to Tom's outburst? Will Tom cross the line? Find out in the next chapter of ****_The Walking Dead_****...**


	14. Episode II - Chapter Five

Episode Two: Cry For Help

Chapter Five: Chaos

**Previously on ****_The Walking Dead_****: On their way to Savannah to rescue Molly and her friends who are trapped by walkers at The Marsh House, Tom confronts Johnny and Alex about the death of his daughter, whom the two accidentally poisoned. Tom throws Alex out of the RV and begins to beat him as the rest of the group watch. Meanwhile, Molly, Todd and Ryan make it to the roof of the hotel after barely escaping a swarm of walkers that killed their friend Paul. Now, their only hope of rescue is Clementine and her group.**

Ryan was tired of waiting now. He watched Molly pace from one side of the rooftop to the other as she waited for a response from the girl on the radio. Resting against one of the pipes peeking out of the roof, Ryan wiped another wave of sweat from his brow. Sweating like this was unnatural, especially on a night as cold as this. Another tear of sweat dropped from his chin. When he looked up he saw that Todd was looking at him with concern. He must have mistakenly thought that Ryan was crying, though he couldn't have blamed him after what the three of them had been through. When he saw that Todd was approaching him. Ryan tried to stand. He forced himself onto his feet. Feeling light-headed, he tried to grab the nearby pipe for support. But Ryan missed it completely and instead fell to the ground. To Ryan, the fall lasted a few seconds. He felt a gust of air leave his lungs as the ground came up to meet him. Then, everything went dark, and Ryan left his friends for a short while.

Todd sat beside his friend, struggling to understand the reason behind his sudden fall. He grabbed Ryan's head with his hands and tried to pull him forward. He couldn't feel any blood, which reassured him after he feared that Ryan might have opened his skull. He pulled Ryan close to him, he could feel his breath on his neck. He was about to shout to Molly when she appeared opposite him. Her hands were immediately on his cheeks, trying to comfort him. She stroked his cheeks as she asked him what was wrong repeatedly under her breath. Todd's thoughts were then immediately on what would come after – the chaos that was ensured if Ryan didn't survive whatever this was. Todd knew it would have to be him who did what needed to be done if worse came to worse. He wondered how long it would take for Ryan to turn when the sound of coughing and choking made Todd jump onto his feet. After pulling away and getting back on his feet, he realised he had grabbed Hilda from Molly's backpack on his way up. He saw that Ryan had regained consciousness, and was coughing up blood and saliva. Molly held Ryan in her arms, stroking his cheek as she looked back at Todd. She looked so ashamed in him, he had been ready to bury the ice tool in Ryan's skull. He threw the ice tool down to the floor and out of his hands, disgusted by the thought. Todd then marched away from the two of them, unable to look at either of them.

Molly could see the bite now. Ryan's sleeves had been concealing it, but the wound in his left arm had obviously been gushing blood, and his blue sleeves were now soaked with red blood. Before, Molly had assumed the mess had come from a walker, but after Ryan's fall, she had checked for any broken bones. That was when she pulled back his sleeve to reveal the deep, purple, throbbing, gaping holes above Ryan's wrist. Ryan had tried to pull away, and spare Molly from seeing the wounds, but he could barely bring himself to move now. He had flailed and flapped weakly, but Molly had seen the bite now – and everything had changed. Her and Todd knew what was going to happen next, it was just a question of when.

* * *

Lilly stood in the RV's doorway watching as Tom laid another sequence of blows to Alex's bloody, broken face. She blocked the doorway, keeping Johnny from intervening. _This is justice_, she kept trying to tell herself. Alex had gotten Tom's entire family killed – he was getting exactly what he deserved. Beyond the lay of land beside the highway where Tom hammered fist after fist against Alex's soft face, lightning struck the hilltops, lighting the skies with bright flashes of white. Each of flash of lightening was followed by a roar of thunder, which could have been mistaken for the sound of Alex's bones crunching as Tom buried his bare knuckles into his face, breaking one bone at a time. For a brief moment, Lilly thought Tom might have finally killed him, but then she saw Alex's eyes flicker open, and Tom laid down yet another familiar sequence of raw, brutal punches. Each one was followed by a gasp or a scream, but Alex was silent. The cries were coming from behind Lilly – from Johnny. When Lilly saw another tooth fly loose from Alex's broken jaw, she decided enough was enough. _Justice has been served_, she though as she left the RV and cleared a path for Johnny, who immediately raced past her to save Alex. Lilly watched as the chaos that followed played out in front of her tired eyes.

Lilly was reduced to nothing but a blur as Johnny shot past her. He leaped out of the RV – his feet hitting the dirt with a loud THUMP – and raced towards Tom, who was still throwing punches left and right against the boy choking on his own blood below him. He sprinted at the large shape above Alex – he saw only a blur as the adrenaline began to kick in – his heart thumping in his chest loud enough for him to hear. Closing his eyes, he threw himself against Tom, wrapping himself around the giant and sending them both tumbling into the dirt beside Alex. When he opened his eyes again, Johnny was on top of Tom. Fuelled by rage, he grasped the monster's throat tight and started to choke him. Johnny clenched his teeth together hard enough to turn his face beat red as he wrapped his hands around Tom's neck tighter and tighter. As he saw Tom's eyes begin to fill with blood, a manic smile began to stretch across Johnny's face.

When she saw his dirty hands wringed firmly around Tom's neck, Lilly pulled out the gun stuffed in the back of her trousers and clicked it loud enough to get Johnny's attention. She had no intention of using the weapon on anybody, but she had hoped the sound of arming the weapon – ready to shoot- would be enough to keep Johnny from killing him. Sadly, Lilly was wrong. Even as he stared down the barrel of Lilly's gun, Johnny did not release his grip. Instead, his grip became tighter. Lilly began to question how long Johnny had been strangling Tom, and how long she had left to free him. By the look of Tom's face, now the colour of a ripe tomato, she did not have long. Her finger was now on the trigger, and just for a moment, she considered pulling it. Johnny and Alex had obviously _both_ been responsible for Lisa and Donna's death, and now he was trying to kill Tom too! Had Johnny blown his only chance to make things right? Would things not get better until he and Alex were both out of the picture? Was Tom right after all? All of these thoughts were going through her head when she heard Alex cry a single word out from beside her.

Johnny turned from Tom's long, unshaven and now bright red face at the sound of the click of Lilly's gun. He saw Alex first, wiping blood from his broken, beaten face that was already showing cuts and bruises. He watched Alex spit a tooth, knocked loose from Tom's beating, out of his mouth. Johnny's manic smile had disappeared now. Instead, he was looking at Alex with pity. His hands still not showing any signs of leaving their place firmly around Tom's neck, he tried to tell Alex that he was doing the right thing through a long solemn stare that sent a shiver down Alex's spine. Alex had begun to wonder whether or not he still knew the person before him. The man who was slowly draining the life out of another human being – was that the Johnny he knew? The world now ruled by the walking dead had the unforgiving, unfailing ability to change the people living in it. Had it changed Johnny too? After beginning to fear the worst, Alex finally cried out to Johnny. "Stop!" he pleaded. "Just stop!" Alex cried again, tears now streaming down his cheeks, washing the blood and dirt from his face in small wet streaks. And Johnny did so. His hands left Tom's neck, letting Tom's head fall to the ground. As soon as Johnny had let go, Tom huffed and puffed and his hands went to his neck, rubbing the skin were Johnny had begun to dig his fingernails deep into his throat. Around his neck, which bore the occasional grey hair that showed the man's age, a silver chain had been tattooed many years ago, circling around Tom's throat. Tom could feel it now. The chain was shrinking - getting tighter and tighter as every day passed.

Back on his feet, Johnny leapt into Alex's arms, ignoring the chances of Alex having suffered from several broken ribs and maybe a dislocated shoulder. Alex cringed and squealed in pain, but still embraced Johnny. When Johnny pulled back, he kissed Alex on the lips. Blood, dirt and sweat was all his boyfriend tasted of, but it made no difference to Johnny. He held Alex tight again, and whispered apology after apology into his ear. Over Alex's shoulder, he saw Lilly approach Tom, her gun still in her left hand. For a moment, Johnny thought she might have been about to finish his work and put a bullet between his bulging eyes. Instead, Lilly tucked her pistol back into her pants and offered Tom a hand. Although his knuckles were still bleeding, covering his hands in crimson blood, Tom gave Lilly his hand. It was hard for Lilly to keep her hand in Tom's, her grip made slippy by the blood that was quite _literally_ on his hands. But despite his unmet and extraordinary weight, she was able to pull the giant of a man back on his feet. When she looked back at the RV, she saw the entire group stood outside the door, including Clementine, who still held on to her treasured walkie-talkie with her dear life. Realising they had been watching the entire ordeal, Lilly heard Tom sigh. To her surprise, that was all Tom did. And nobody heard a wink from him for the rest of the day.

* * *

Molly was trying the walkie-talkie for the eight time that night when Ryan's condition began to worsen. He was coughing and wheezing regularly now, occasionally spewing blood from his mouth and repulsing Todd. But even when Ryan brought his last meal back up in a hot stew of vomit and blood, Todd still stuck by his best friend, cooling his brow with a wet flannel and keeping him hydrated with the group's last bottle of water. The fact that they were wasting their last bottle of pure, clean and fresh water on someone who was already destined to die never even crossed Todd's mind – he was too busy making sure that Ryan's final moments were as peaceful and comfortable as they could be.

"How is he?" Molly finally turned and asked, giving up on the walkie-talkie that was still silent.

"How do you think?" Todd replied firmly, though Molly was in no mood to argue right now. "Still no answer?" Todd asked, nodding at the walkie-talkie Molly still held tight in her hands.

"No. Nothing," she said. She tried to think of some way of being optimistic about their current situation. Some detail that they may have overlooked that might have meant there was hope still. But there was nothing. No detail overlooked. No hope. "Nothing," she repeated to herself.

* * *

The first hour of their journey to Savannah was near silent, the silence only being broken occasionally by Donald who was murmuring incomprehensibly as he drifted into and out of sleep. Clementine watched as Alice, who hadn't left her husband's side yet (even during the commotion between Tom, Alex and Johnny), kept her husband cool and hydrated with a wet towel and bottled water, and calmed him whenever he woke. Every time he opened his eyes again, Donald would look down at his right leg and discover for the first time that it was missing, as he would forget almost every time he drifted to sleep. Alice had had to calm her husband down and explain that he had been bitten almost six times now, and it hadn't gotten any easier. Donald's eyes flickered open femininely now as Clementine watched. He was waking up again. Alice squeezed her husband's hand as she reminded him that she was by his side, like she did every time he woke. He looked down again, about to discover that his right leg was missing. Clementine and Alice dreaded what was to come, but to their surprise, Donald simply looked down, saw his stump and reacted with nothing but a plain and simple sigh. He closed his eyes again, and drifted back to sleep. Alice, who looked ready to cry, met Clementine's eyes then. She tried to smile, but it didn't do much to convince Clem. All the same, she smiled back. Alice almost looked as though she was about to say something when Omid broke the silence that was now crippling the group in the RV.

"Ow! OH OW! Oh, that hurts!" Omid cried in a goofy high-pitched voice that made him sound child-like. Clementine saw that Omid was finally back on both his feet after having been laid on his back for almost the entire journey. It looked like his leg had mostly healed, though he still walked with a very obvious limp. "Hey, this is good. It's getting better!" He said, sounding sheepish again.

"Good?" Christa said back to Omid, hope and happiness could both be heard in her voice. "This is great, Omid. At this rate, you'll be back on your feet in a couple of days!"

Clementine wanted to jump up and cheer. For almost the entire time she'd known Omid, he had been suffering from the same leg wound that at many points seemed like it may be fatal. But he was finally pulling through. Smiling, she turned back to Alice, whose eyes were back to her husband. Unfortunately, for Donald, it wasn't as simple as pulling through. Donald was never going to walk on two feet again.

That was when Clementine's walkie-talkie crackled back to life, the noise muffled by Clementine's backpack where she had hidden and almost forgotten about it. Just hearing the radio crackle followed by a familiar voice, Clementine pulled the radio from her backpack, thumbed the red button and spoke to Molly.

"Molly? Is that you? We're on our way!"

"Clementine? Oh, thank God! We were staring to worry," Molly said, overjoyed by the sound of the girl's voice. She couldn't be more grateful that the girl was on her way. "We really need your help, Clementine. Things are only getting worse…" She said with remorse. There was something else bothering Molly, but Clementine couldn't put her little finger on what it was. Right now, all she cared about was getting back to The Marsh House and finding her friends, which was what made what followed all the more difficult to bear.

"Oh shit," Clementine heard Johnny say from the driver's cabin. He sat in the driver's seat with Alex asleep beside him, but Johnny was now shaking Alex's shoulder furiously to wake him up. "Houston, we have a problem."

Clementine darted to the front of the RV, walkie-talkie still in hand. She was the first to see what Johnny was talking about, and when she did, her heart sank. She saw the familiar landscape; the buildings shooting over the cobbled streets, though now they were mostly hidden in the perilous darkness of the night that engulfed most of the city's landmarks and other distinguishing features. But it was something else that had grabbed Clementine's attention, and alarmed Johnny so. The endless wave of feral walkers that flooded the streets, now reaching out and pulling themselves towards the RV and its inhabitants, was what sent a shiver through Clementine, and made her take a deep breath.

* * *

**Next time on ****_The Walking Dead_****: When the group are faced with a herd of walkers that blocks their way to The Marsh House, they must work together to find a way past them. However, after Tom's meltdown, the group begins to lose their trust in each other. Meanwhile, Molly and Todd struggle to decide how to deal with Ryan. The clock is ticking, and they are running out of time. Will Clementine and her friends come to the rescue before it's too late?**

**You guys know the drill: REVIEWS = NEW CHAPTERS. Thanks to those who have already left feedback. Over 1,000 views? You guys are the best!**

**-George**


	15. Episode II - Chapter Six

Episode Two: Cry For Help

Chapter Six: To The Roof

**Previously on ****_The Walking Dead_****: On their way back to Savannah to find Molly and her friends, members of the group collided, and with near-fatal consequences. Tom brutally beat Alex for poisoning his daughter until Johnny intervened. The fight was split up by Lilly, but the group began to lose trust in each other. When they finally arrived in Savannah, the group find their path blocked by an enormous swarm of walkers infesting the city's streets. Now, with Molly and Todd trapped on the roof of The Marsh House trapped with their bitten and soon to turn friend, the group must find a way there to rescue them before it's too late.**

Lilly could smell the zombies from within the RV; that familiar stench of rotting flesh filled her nose until her eyes began to water. The group had become familiar with herds, but this was unlike anything they had seen before. The swarm of walkers before them was more like an army; each soldier moaning and shrieking incomprehensible cries of pain and suffering as they reached and clawed the air before them, slowly making their way to the RV. As the swarm piled over each, coming closer and closer to the RV, Lilly knew she needed a plan. Some way of making it through Savannah and to The Marsh House and surviving this horde. But she had nothing. There was no plan, no opportunity, no hope left. The only option they had was to turn back, but Lilly knew that, as far as Clem and Alex were concerned, that wasn't an option to even be considered.

"SO?" Johnny cried out to Lilly who stood over him, still taking in the size of the walker horde before them. "WHAT THE FUCK DO WE DO NOW!?" He asked her in a voice that was much louder and much higher-pitched than usual thanks to the panic that was now flowing through his veins. Lilly could already see his hands shaking on the steering wheel. Realising that Lilly had nothing, Johnny looked around him, hoping to find some answer. But Alex was still asleep beside him, and Clementine stood by him with both hands on her radio – likely traumatized by the army of terror she had seen through the RV's windscreen. The rest of the group stood outside the driver's cabin, their heads peeping through to witness the massive size of the herd for themselves. Johnny put his right hand firmly around the gearstick – an idea sparking in his mind like a lightbulb. He was ready to slam his foot down on the accelerator and plow through the endless wave of walkers when the loud ringing sounds of a bell in the night sky stopped him in his tracks.

At first, Johnny thought that he may have just been hearing things. But when he exchanged looks with the rest of the group, he could immediately tell by the look on their quizzing and confused faces that they had heard the bell too. "WHAT THE HELL WAS-" Tom shouted from the back of the RV, confused and maybe even scared by the sounds of the bell ringing. "Shhh!" Johnny interrupted him, pressing a finger to his own lips as he did so. "Be quite you moron!" Tom looked down, almost looking ashamed in himself for acting so stupidly. For a moment, the group's focus was on Johnny. They could hardly believe Johnny had just put Tom down like that. Coach's big hairy eyebrows were raised high up on his head making him look pretty impressed by Johnny. Christa and Omid shared a worried look with each other, and Omid put a hand on Clementine's shoulder. Briefly, the group simply admired Johnny for silencing Tom, but their undivided attention was drawn back to the horde of walkers when they spotted the first walker turn to face the bell tower where the ringing sounds were still coming from, stare quizzically at the tower for a few long, excruciating seconds, and eventually leave the street through an alley to its left and follow the sounds of the ringing.

Walker after walker followed the first through the alley towards the bell tower as the ringing continued. It had only taken a single walker for the rest to pile in behind him and follow him out of the street. The RV remained still, so still it may even have been hidden in the dark of the night. Johnny's heart was thumping in his chest as the walkers stumbled and crawled and eventually disappeared through the alleyway, following the first walker like some kind of messiah. Johnny studied the bell tower in the distance, barely able to make out the shape of it in the night sky. He could clearly see the golden bell swing from side to side, and for just a moment, he thought he could see a shape beside it, dwarfed by its extraordinary size, pulling a rope with all their might and ringing the bell. The ringing was all Johnny could hear now, the withered moans and cries of the walkers having whisked away, which may have been why he didn't hear Lilly at first. "Johnny!" He finally heard Lilly shout in his ear loud and sudden enough to make him jump out of his skin. "We can go now," she told him, nodding at the view outside the windscreen. Johnny had been so distracted by the figure in the tower ringing the bell with hefty pulls of that rope, that he hadn't noticed the horde of walkers blocking the street had mostly dispersed, leaving only about a dozen lurkers wandering the street aimlessly, bumping into lampposts and newspaper vendors as they wandered. Johnny looked back to the tower – the figure had vanished. _Typical_, Johnny thought as he put the RV into motion again. He drove the RV slowly through the street, moving around the occasional walker in their path, as the rest of the group took their seats. When he heard confused murmurs coming from beside him, Johnny turned to see Alex sat up, his eyes finally back open (although he was only able to open his black eye a mere inch). Alex's face was a mess. The bruises had sent his cheeks a dark shade of purple, and his nose and mouth still showed cuts and cracks that bled from time to time. "What happened?" He tried to say through cracked, parched lips. Johnny barely heard him, but he wasn't the one who answered his question – he wouldn't even have known where to begin. "Someone saved us," Clementine said from between the two, though neither of them had noticed she was still there. Johnny looked to see Alex's reaction to Clementine's brief but truthful explanation, but all he responded with was a simple thumbs up gesture and a cheesy grin that made him look as though he'd been smoking weed. After that, Alex fell straight back to sleep, and Johnny laughed.

Omid kept an eye on Clementine, who had remained in the driver's cabin with Johnny and Alex, as he sat with Christa, his hand in hers. Still shaken by the events that had transpired earlier that day, Omid couldn't help but be concerned for her safety around Johnny, who had almost killed another member of their group mere hours ago. When he looked away from Johnny, he met eyes with Tom briefly. Omid quickly moved his gaze elsewhere, not wanting to look Tom in the eye. Killers were all around him, he soon realised. Right now, the only people he felt he could really trust were Christa, Clementine and himself. Which was why he had been considering leaving the group, finding a vehicle and finding somewhere else to settle just with Christa and Clem. Though he hated the idea of abandoning these people, he had come to learn that staying in a group like this would never work out. He had made an important promise to Lee, and it was one he and Christa were going to keep. He felt Christa's soft touch as she stroked his hand delicately, as though he was so fragile he could break at any minute. "Are you okay?" He heard Christa ask him. He thought about the question for a few long seconds. "Fine," Omid lied through his teeth. He was pretty far from fine. Two people had died since they had joined the group at the camp on the hilltop; a wife and daughter. In the aftermath, three people had almost killed each other. They had even left an innocent man to die back on the highway. Omid had begun to wonder what kind of a group he had joined. What kind of a group he had allowed Clementine to be a part of. He hadn't been sure about them from the start, and today three more people had almost died. He wasn't going to let anything happen to Clementine. Not ever. Even if it meant abandoning these people and the three of them taking their chances on their own. "Are you sure you're okay?" Christa asked again, sounding more concerned than the first time. Omid looked down to realise he was shaking. He plastered another fake smile across his face and was about to spit out another lie when Christa gasped loud, grabbing her chest. She seemed in pain as she breathed in and out slowly, trying to cool herself and ease whatever the pain was. She was squeezing Omid's hand tight now, but when she looked up she was smiling like he'd never seen her smile before. He looked down where Christa was rubbing her chest, and smiled back at her. He knew exactly what she was so ecstatic about, and it made him lean in and plant a wet kiss on her cheek. "Never better," he finally told her.

* * *

Clementine shook Johnny's shoulder alarmingly when she first saw the golden letters of The Marsh House come into view. "That's it! That's it!" She screamed with excitement, as though Johnny somehow hadn't already worked that out from the bold, blatant letters that spelt out: THE MARSH HOUSE. The RV came to a halt outside the steps of The Marsh House, and Clementine ran back to Christa and Omid. Lilly quickly shot up to arm her rifle and load some weapons for the group, she smiled at Clementine as she zoomed past her. "We're here!" Clem told Christa and Omid as she jumped up and down like a child about to open their Christmas presents. Next to her, Lilly handed pistols to Johnny and Alex. When they were both up and armed, Lilly approached Christa and Omid. "So, are all three of you tagging along?" Lilly asked Christa, Omid and Clem. Omid and Christa shared an uncertain look. "You're not going alone," Omid told Christa, and the two took their weapons.

"What about Clementine?" Lilly asked the two, watching Clementine as she changed the batteries in her walkie-talkie.

"What _about_ her?" Christa asked her back, unsure what she was implying.

"Is she coming with us or not?"

"Why would I even dream of bringing Clementine with us?" Christa asked Lilly sarcastically, rubbing Lilly the wrong way. Omid, meanwhile, looked unsure, as though he was considering bringing Clementine with them.

"Because she needs to learn to fend for herself," Lilly explained with deadly seriousness. "We all do. We've already lost too many people; people who died because they couldn't protect themselves _or_ each other." Lilly looked at Tom, whose head was bowed. He was clearly thinking about his late wife and daughter. "Clementine's lucky to have you two to protect her. Very lucky." She paused, her thoughts were of her father for a brief moment. "But you won't be able to protect her forever."

Lilly gave the two of them a moment for her words to sink in. When she pulled a pistol from her satchel and placed it in Clementine's hands, Christa didn't say a word to intervene. Lilly looked up at Omid, who still seemed concerned. "Don't worry," she told him, "the safety's on," and winked.

It was Tom, Coach, Donald and Alice who remained in the RV whilst the others searched The Marsh House for Molly and her group. Donald had finally managed to stay awake for more than five minutes, but Alice still remained by his side. Tom watched the two enviously as Alice swept Donald's sweaty forehead with a wet towel and fed him water regularly. When Alice caught him staring, she offered him a look of loathing and disgust, which Tom didn't understand. He had saved her husband's life by removing his leg, and yet she'd gone out of her way to avoid him and had never come close to even thanking him. Tom had had a shitty day, that was the only truth he could think of. Not being in the mood for the wild goose chase in the walker-infested hotel the others had been so eager to take part in, Tom had remained in the RV, claiming that climbing those stairs and running from walkers would not have been good for him with his heart condition. Although he hadn't had any problems since being at the hilltop, he wasn't looking to get his heart racing again just in case. Instead, he handed the RV keys to Coach and told him to be ready to drive out of Savannah when the others returned. "And if they don't," he explained to Coach, "I don't have to tell you that we shouldn't wait around for too long." Coach nodded, seemingly understanding every word he said. "Don't hang around, Coach. You see too many walkers get near, get us the hell out of here. We got a cripple and a woman in the back after all."

* * *

The gloomy hallways had been engulfed by darkness – swallowed up by the apocalypse, its life sucked out of it, and spat back out. The end of the world had transformed the once golden, rich and beautiful glowing hallways of The Marsh House into endless paths of dank, depressing cold. The group weaved through the corridors, pushing aside the occasional cobweb or abandoned suitcase that blocked their path. The gun in her hand was heavy, pulling Clementine down to look like a hunchback. But when she noticed Lilly was watching her, Clementine stood up straight and marched by her side with the pistol in her hand. She didn't know why she was trying to impress Lilly so, but she felt like she was doing so in the right way. When they came to a corner, Clementine marched ahead, took cover by the wall, and peeked over the corner to check it was clear. It was. There wasn't a walker in sight. Lilly looked impressed and even told her "Good job," in a firm but friendly manner, which pleased Clem a lot. She didn't know why she had taken to Lilly so much. As much as she tried, she couldn't forget what Lilly had done – the people she'd killed. But for some reason, Clementine saw a lot of good in Lilly too. Lilly had lost her father just like Clem had, yet she'd still managed to pull through and survive for this long. That, Clementine admired.

"We need to take the stairwell to the roof," Lilly said, her voice echoing through the halls. The group approached another corner. Clementine was about to run towards it to take cover and impress Lilly again, but when she heard groans echo through the hallway, Lilly grabbed Clem's backpack and pulled her back. She shook her head at Clementine - this was no time to get cocky. Clem heard four guns click behind her when the group identified the groan as the sounds of a walker approaching. Clementine turned to see Omid struggling to figure out his pistol. Eventually, Christa grabbed his gun and cocked it for him. Clementine followed in everyone's footsteps and cocked her pistol. She could see the shadow now. The abnormal shape shuffled closer and closer until the walker finally reared its ugly head, appearing from around the corner. It groaned and clawed at the air as it drooled black liquid from its frothing mouth. The walker's skin was more pale than Clementine was used to, it may have been that it had only turned recently. It's clothes were also still intact, bearing only slight rips and tears. But the football jacket was covered in blood, and Clementine could see now that its chest had been opened, its entrails leaking from its open chest. The walker stumbled closer and closer to the group, and Clementine raised her gun.

"You can do it, Clementine," Lilly told her confidently, nodding at the walker fumbling towards them.

"What?" Clementine asked, looking at Lilly and Christa both. Christa was nodding in approval, encouraging Clementine.

"You can do it," Lilly insisted. "Just squeeze the trigger," she told her, as if it was that simple.

"I… I can…" Clementine tried to keep the gun raised, but the pistol was heavy. She began to struggle. The walker was getting closer now, the moonlight shone through the window it passed, revealing the walker's human face.

"Oh my God…" Alex muttered from behind Clem, having recognised the walker. "Paul…"

Paul came closer and closer to the group, swinging his claws through the air and crying out for a taste of fresh human meat. He shrieked, excited by the smell of food nearby, the sound was piercing. The shrieks cut through Clementine as her hands began to shake and her fingers around the trigger began to wobble. She closed her eyes and pulled the trigger back. For the briefest instant, the room was lit up again by a blast of white light. The sound was deafening, and for a short while, Clementine felt nothing; her five senses all absent.

**Next time on ****_The Walking Dead_****: Clem and the group continue their search of The Marsh House for Molly and her friends, unaware of how unsafe they are. And Molly and Todd are forced to come to a decision of how to deal with Ryan, who has been bitten and is running out of time. Meanwhile, Tom's loyalty to the rest of the group is tested when walkers begin to surround The Marsh House, and he must decide whether to abandon his friends, or risk the safety of the rest of the group. As the two groups finally collide, only chaos is ensured to follow in ****_Chapter Seven: By Your Side._**


	16. Episode II - Chapter Seven

Episode Two: Cry For Help

Chapter Seven: By Your Side

**Previously on ****_The Walking Dead_****: After Clementine and the group finally made it to Savannah, they found their path blocked by a herd of walkers. But a mystery savior rang a nearby bell tower, drawing the walkers away and clearing the path. After arriving at The Marsh House, Lilly led Clementine, Christa, Omid, Johnny and Alex through the hotel, where they soon encountered the reanimated corpse of Paul, an old friend of Alex's. Up on the roof, Molly and Todd are struggling to deal with Ryan, who has been bitten and is fading fast. Are the two prepared to do what they need to before Clem and her friends arrive? If not, it could mean tragic consequences for the group!**

The walker's head burst in a bloody explosion of crimson, spraying waves of red across the old grey walls and staining the carpet indefinitely. For a good few seconds, the headless walker remained stood upright, balancing on both feet. It eventually fell backwards, landing with a thump that made Clementine jump and finally open her eyes. She was breathing heavily as she checked the walker was lying still before lowering her pistol. The gun was still smoking from the shot and Clementine's ears were still ringing. She didn't hear Lilly's question, so when she put a hand on Clem's shoulder, the girl jumped.

"It's okay," Lilly reassured Clementine. "You did good," She told her, smiling.

"Yeah, you did," Christa agreed, and Omid nodded in agreement too. Though the two still weren't completely for the idea of Clementine carrying around her own firearm, she had proved that she was capable of using it, and Lee would have been happy about that.

As the rest of the group carried on through the hallway, Johnny remained by Alex's side, who was knelt beside his dead friend. Alex looked ready to heave, but he didn't even flinch as he took Paul's cold, dead, bloody hand and held it in his own, which worried Johnny.

"He was the nicest guy, Johnny," Alex said about his late friend. "He never hurt anybody. He deserved better than this," Alex explained, tears welling in his eyes.

"I'm so sorry, Alex," was all Johnny could think to say, clichéd as it was. "I'm sure they would have buried him if they'd gotten the chance but…"

"…Walkers?"

"Yeah… Horrible." Johnny had tried to comfort his friend, but he had only made Alex worry about the safety of Todd and the others. Had they made it to the roof okay? Had the walkers gotten to them first? Johnny tried to quell those thoughts as he lifted his friend by the arm back on his feet. Before the two carried on, Alex put a hand against Johnny's chest.

"Don't ever let that happen to me, man." Alex looked ready to cry now. He didn't want to even think about it, but he had to let Johnny know this. "I mean… I ever got myself bitten? Please, just end it. Just shoot me. Don't let me live like that…" Alex could barely finish his sentence as he began to cry. Johnny held him tight in his arms, shushing him.  
"Jesus, Alex. Don't say that. Don't even think that, man." He stared at the dead walker over Alex's shoulder. "I'll never let anything like that happen to you. Not ever."

* * *

Omid and Christa were starting to fall behind Lilly and Clementine as they made their way down the hallway to the stairwell at the end of the hall. The Marsh House was like a maze, sending its visitors in zigzags until they were well and truly lost. They were just lucky that this maze was mostly walker-free. Mostly. Christa watched as Clementine pointed her gun in different directions playfully, pretending to shoot it around corners, from behind desert trolleys and through the heads of already dead walkers; the mere sight of which alarmed Omid. The walkers may have been dead, but the meaning of the word "dead" had been loosened in recent months.

"You okay with that?" Omid asked, noticing Christa was watching Lilly and Clem together.

"Of course," Christa claimed. "She needs to learn how to defend herself." But she hadn't convinced either of them. Not Omid or herself. He could tell she was still worried about Clem, but it didn't bother him. After all, so was he.

"I'm talking about Clem spending so much time with Lilly," Omid explained. "I mean, how much do we really know about her?" _Nothing_, Omid thought, making himself panic.

"Not that much," Christa admitted. "But she can certainly handle herself. We need someone like her, and so does Clem. So try not to scare her off," Christa joked.

"Hey!" Omid eventually learned to laugh at the joke, but he still went on. "I don't know, it's just- I thought _I_ was her favourite."

"Oh, so you're jealous…" Christa said, finally understanding Omid's problem.

"No, it's not that," Omid excused himself. "It's just that Lee trusted _us_ to take care of Clementine, not her."

"Well, maybe she can teach Clementine things we can't. Who knows? Maybe she reminds her of Lee."

"Maybe," Omid considered the idea as he watched Lilly and Clem in the distance. Pointing towards something excitedly, he realised Clementine had found the door to the stairwell that would hopefully lead them to the roof. He was about to run and catch up to them when he saw something gleam in the corner of his eye. To his right stood a desert trolley. The trolley was almost entirely empty besides a bucket of ice on top, inside of which, stashed away was an unopened, cold bottle of bourbon. Through the ginger glass, Omid could feel the liquid staring back at him. He looked back and forth. Noticing Christa had gone moved one, Omid grabbed the cool bottle from the bucket, pulled off the bottle's top and took a quick swig of the whiskey, wiping his mouth afterwards as the liquid burned away at his insides like dragon's breath.

"Omid, look at this!" The voice form behind him made Omid gasp, and he stashed the bottle away beneath his jacket as he turned to see Johnny, looking mighty pleased with himself. In his hands, Johnny held a pair of dusty crutches. He blew the dust from the crutches; they were in surprisingly good condition. "I don't know what Donald will be more happy about," Johnny said. "This pair of crutches I just found, or that bottle of bourbon you just hid away in your jacket." Johnny winked at Omid before testing out the crutches, hopping to the end of the hallway.

* * *

Clementine found herself leading the group up the final set of stairs, Lilly beside her with her rifle ready. The Marsh House only seemed to get colder as they climbed, but they'd managed to steer clear of walkers through most of their journey to the roof. Now, a large metal door stood before Clementine, above it hung a beaming green light with the word: EXIT shining in bold white writing. Clementine put out her hand to push the door open, but Lilly's voice stopped her in her tracks. "Stop," Lilly said with a whisper. She moved passed Clementine, pressing an ear against the metal door. Omid, Christa, Johnny an Alex had now caught up to Lilly and Clem, the eager couple who had marched ahead to find the roof.

"Hear any walkers?" Omid asked, still whispering.

"No," Lilly said. "I hear voices. So unless the walkers have learned to speak English, I think we've found your friends," she declared, looking at Clementine.

Lilly pushed the metal door wide open. The rusty old door creaked as it revealed the rooftop and its inhabitants. Clementine saw Molly first, her thumb was on the walkie-talkie and she was about to speak into it when she saw Clementine in the doorway. "MOLLY!" Clementine shouted. The two looked at each other in disbelief, and Clementine eventually ran to Molly, wrapping her arms around her waist when she got to her. "Hey there, kiddo," Molly chuckled as she embraced Clem. The others piled out of the doorway and explored the rooftop. Alex soon spotted Todd and Ryan and dragged Johnny with him to meet his friends.

Alex first spotted Todd knelt beside another familiar looking boy who sat back against a pipe poking out of the roof. He grabbed Johnny's hand and dragged him to the boys. As he got closer, he recognised Ryan, though the boy had turned a ghastly shade of pale, and blood was seeping from his mouth. "Oh. My. God," Todd said, recognising Johnny and Alex. "I can't believe it's you!" He stood up to give Alex a brotherly hug and gave Johnny a friendly nod.

"No more than I can believe it," Alex told him as he finally let him go. Todd could tell something was bothering him. "Man, what the hell happened here?"

Todd didn't know where to begin. "We came looking for supplies – food, water, anything – but we had a run in with some walkers," He looked down, trying to figure out how to word the worst news best. "We lost Paul," he eventually forced himself to say. "And Ryan was bitten." Todd watched Alex put a hand over his mouth when he saw the state of Ryan.

"Fuck. Man, I'm sorry," Alex said quietly, things were only getting worse. "How long…?" Todd knew what he was trying to say, but he didn't even want to think about it. A part of him thought maybe with the right care, Ryan wouldn't turn. But it was inevitable. And Todd knew it.

"I don't know," Todd admitted. "I just don't know…"

* * *

"You have no idea how good it is to see you guys again," Molly said as she shook the hands of Omid and Christa. "Things really went to hell here in Savannah after you guys left. This city belongs to the walkers now." Molly sighed as she looked across the city, where swarms of undead plagued the streets. "So, I'm assuming the whole boat plan didn't exactly work out?" Molly asked the two of them almost sarcastically.

"You could say that," Christa replied with regret. "Vernon and his people stole our boat and left us to die when the city was overtaken by the walkers."

"The cancer survivors?" Molly sounded flabbergasted. Christa was still trying to get her head around how exactly that had happened. "You serious?"

"Yeah..." Christa held Omid's hand. "Things only got worse after that. Lee was bitten, and we lost Kenny and Ben." She looked at the cracks in the ground beneath her as Molly took it all in.

"Shit…" Molly was stunned. She had so many questions, and yet she didn't know where to begin. "Lee? Is he… Y'know?" Molly made a gesture when she saw that Clementine wasn't looking, slashing her hand against her neck to ask if Lee hadn't made it out alive.

"Yeah… He's gone," Christa confirmed. She hadn't realised how much the group had lost until she'd had to list everyone that had been killed in Savannah.

Molly thought back to her first run-in with Lee, Kenny and Clementine. She had almost left the three of them for dead. Going back for them may have been the best decision she'd made since this nightmare began. She went through Christa's story in her head. How Lee had been bitten, and how that hadn't stopped him from rescuing Clementine. How Kenny had died protecting the group, though none of the group had actually seen his body. Molly was about to ask if there was any chance the old man might have made it out of Savannah alive when another woman approached her, with Clementine by her side. For a moment, Molly thought the woman might have been Clementine's mother, but Christa then introduced the woman called Lilly.

"Hey, good to meet-" Molly was about introduce herself when she saw past Lilly's shoulder, and chocked up at the sight of half a dozen walkers emerging from the darkness beyond the open doorway. "Shit…" Molly whispered to herself. "CLOSE THAT DOOR!" She cried out to the entire group, giving Lilly a chance to make some good first impressions.

* * *

Lilly was on the door like lightning, slamming it shut in the face of the first walker and earning a loud CRUNCH sound as a result of the metal smashing the walker's jaw. Lilly pressed her back against the door, keeping the horde of zombies at bay. "You better find a way of this roof quick!" She announced to no one in particular.

"Follow me! Everyone, follow me!" Molly shouted to the group. Everyone was on their feet now. Omid pulled Clementine close to him and Christa, and Johnny joined them. Molly counted the heads before her, and realised they were missing some people.

"Alex!" Johnny cried out. He spotted him knelt down beside Todd in front of Ryan, who still sat back against the pipe. He saw Todd put an arm around Alex, who was crying now. Then it finally registered with Johnny: Ryan was no longer moving. Johnny watched as Alex closed Ryan's eyes for him, and tried to wipe his own tears away. It began to rain. Another storm was on its way to The Marsh House.

The others circled in around Ryan. Molly began to tear up, but stayed strong for Clementine, who held her hand tight. Lilly remained by the door. The walker's weren't giving up anytime soon, still wrestling with the weight of the metal door and slamming themselves against it in a furious rampage. The group bowed their heads, though few of them had even spoken to Ryan nor even known he had been bitten. Alex kept his hand on his cheek, wiping away the raindrops. "He's gone," Alex finally croaked. That was when Johnny's heart raced as a realisation suddenly sank in him.

"ALEX!" Johnny screamed in time for Alex to turn to him. He and Johnny met eyes one last time before the monster that once was Ryan Cross leapt forward to sink his teeth in Alex's neck. Alex squealed as Ryan's sharp molars, now dripping red with Alex's blood, bit deep into his throat. When Ryan pulled away, he tore a long string of flesh from Alex's open neck and continued to chew on it as the group watched in awe. The shot that followed took Johnny by surprise. The bullet zipped through Ryan's skull, making a CLANG noise as it hit the pipe behind him. The zombie slumped to the group, lifeless. But Alex still lay in Ryan's lap, his neck bleeding out from the violent, brutal bite. Johnny turned to see, to his surprise, Omid with his pistol still raised, breathing heavily. Like everyone, he was struggling to comprehend what had happened in the last sixty seconds. Johnny got on his knees before Alex, holding his head so that he could look at Alex again. He was already going pale, blood dripping from his open mouth.

"Remember what I said, Johnny," Alex whispered. "Please, don't let me become one of them. Don't… let me… h- hurt anyone…" He managed between deep breaths.

Johnny understood immediately. He took his pistol from his trousers and pressed the muzzle against Alex's forehead. "I love you, Alex," he let his boyfriend know before squeezing the trigger. The shot was deafening. It took Johnny's breath away. When he opened his eyes, Johnny threw the gun out of his hands and held Alex close to him. His stiff, lifeless body felt cold against his, but Johnny blamed the rain. "It'll be okay," he whispered in Alex's ear, as though he could still hear him.

"We have to go," Molly told the group with regret. They followed her across the rooftop, leaving Johnny and Alex huddled in the rain as the storm slowly began to pass.

**Next time on ****_The Walking Dead_****: After losing Alex and being trapped on the roof by walkers, Clementine and the group must find another means of escape whilst avoiding the walkers and staying alive before Coach and the others leave in the RV! But when Tom suggests they leave the others behind, will Coach step up and refuse to abandon his friends? And how will Johnny cope with the loss of Alex? Find out, as group members clash and fates are decided in the final chapter of Episode Two of The Walking Dead.**

**The final chapter in Episode Two is uploaded and ready to be published! So, if you want to see it this week, leave some reviews, and it'll be up before you know it! PLUS, Part Two of ****_Tales of Crawford_**** is also ready to be published. So... REVIEWS! REVIEWS! REVIEWS! ;)**

**-George**


	17. Episode II - Chapter Eight

Episode Two: Cry For Help

Chapter Eight: "We Don't Leave Friends Behind"

**Previously on ****_The Walking Dead_****: After finally arriving in Savannah, the group split up to find Molly and her friends. Clementine, Lilly, Johnny, Alex, Christa and Omid searched The Marsh House whilst the others waited in the RV for them to return. They found Molly and Todd on the roof, only to learn that their friend, Ryan had been bitten; and time was running out. Ryan turned and bit Alex, but Johnny shot his boyfriend to stop him form turning too. With walkers about to invade the roof, the group must find another way back to the RV before Tom and the others become tired of waiting and leave them behind. Episode Two: Cry For Help concludes in this final chapter!**

Coach sat and watched as Tom continued to pace up and down the length of the RV, checking his watch and sighing every couple of minutes. Alice still sat beside her husband, who was fully awake now, but still barely opened his mouth. The others had been gone for almost an hour now, and Coach was getting worried. He bit on his fingernails, and watched Tom continue to march from left to right. Every now and again, Coach leaned forward and craned his neck to check for walkers through the windshield. He'd only seen the odd lurker pass the RV, and thanks to the headlights being switched off and the four of them remaining silent, each one had kept on moving and had disappeared back into the misty darkness from where they came.

"This is ridiculous," Tom said, checking his watch again. "We're like sitting ducks here. We stay here any longer and those things will sniff us out for sure!"

"Keep it down!" Alice whispered across the RV to Tom. "Keep shouting like that and they won't _have_ to sniff us out to find us!"

"Coming here was a bad idea in the first place," Tom insisted, Coach could see he was panicking now. "We don't even know these people. They could be, thieves, killers or worse! And yet, we're all putting out asses on the line for them!"

"Not all of us…" Coach murmured under his breath loud enough for Tom to hear.

"Don't get smart with me," Tom told Coach, leaning down to look him in the eye. "Remember your place you little shit stain. Me and my family took you in when you had nothing. You owe me, and don't you forget that!" Tom explained all of this to Coach whilst pointing a fat finger in his round face. He looked over at the driver's cabin and through the windscreen, thick streams of raindrops now running down the glass, when he said: "Speaking of which, I think it's time to go."

At first, Alice couldn't see what Tom was pointing at on account of the raindrops covering the windscreen like curtains. But she soon made out a couple of blurred shapes coming closer to the windscreen, then another, and another. The shapes were dark figures, walking on two legs and staggering towards the RV, some with their arms raised as though they were begging for spare change. She could count over thirty walkers now, all closing in around the RV. It began to shake. At first, Alice blamed the storm passing over them, but then she saw the rotted hand flailing around the RV's windows, pushing from each side and leaving bloody handprints printed on the glass – a reminder that death now surrounded them. _Tom's right_, Alice realised suddenly. _It's time to go_.

That was when Coach got on his feet, reminding Alice of the man's incredible size. The giant of a man couldn't have stood much more than 6 foot 2, but it was the man's extraordinary width and muscle that made him appear so superhuman. The man resembled a wrecking ball.

"Get us on the first road out of this hellhole," Tom ordered Coach, looking around him warily, waiting for the first walker hand to smash through the weak glass and come clawing at his neck.

"No," Coach told Tom firmly as he made his way to the driver's seat. His answering back to Tom surprised even Alice. "We're not leaving them." That was when Coach repeated something he'd heard Clementine say earlier that day, and hadn't soon forgotten: "We don't leave friends behind," he turned and said to Tom's face, feeling the older man's breath on his face.

Tom stood motionless for a moment as Coach turned back and headed for the driver's cabin – he was losing control. That was when Tom made the second biggest mistake he'd made that day and put a hand on Coach's shoulder. "Listen, buddy-," Tom began to say before Coach shook his grizzled hand off his shoulder and the big man's enormous fist came soaring through the air to meet Tom's face. He felt the bones in his entire face rattle as the giant's fist came hammering through his face, sending him plummeting to the ground. Alice heard Tom's nose crack and gasped at the first sight of blood as Tom flipped onto his back to reveal his bloody mess of a face. Coach shook his bloody knuckles, and got in his seat. Tom sat up, still aghast at Coach's actions. He wiped his bloody nose with the sleeve of his jumper and braced himself as Coach slammed down the accelerator and rammed the first wave of walkers with the RV's bumper. Most of the walkers slipped under the RV, but the occasional one would come rolling over the bonnet, over the windshield, topple over the RV's roof and land behind it with a loud THUD. Eventually, Coach had steered the RV out of the swarm of walkers, and drove the vehicle down an alleyway beside The Marsh House. He was going to find his friends.

* * *

"Down here!" Molly bellowed directions loud enough for the entire group to hear. She pointed to a metal balcony that hung from the side of the rooftop. As Clementine got nearer, she could see a set of metal steps led down to another balcony below, and the layout was repeated until the metal steps reached ground level. Clementine was the first to go. The metal balcony creaked and racketed as she took each step one at a time with Christa and Omid following close behind her. Todd followed the three of them and Molly saw Johnny finally emerge from the other side of the roof, his head still bowed and wet tears still pouring from his red, tired eyes. He walked to the balcony, griping the bars tight as he followed Todd down the steps. That was everyone – if Molly still counted correctly. She shoved two fingers in her mouth and whistled a tune to Lilly, though she actually couldn't see the woman who had disappeared into the mist of darkness that now coated the rooftop. She could, however, hear the groans and cries of the walkers – Molly just hoped they were still on the other side of that door. When Lilly finally emerged from the dark mist, Molly smiled. But her heart sank when she saw the flood of walkers forming a crowd behind her. "GO!" Lilly screamed at the top of her voice, waving her arm and gesturing for Molly to move her ass. Molly joined the others as they made their way down the fire escape, and after a couple of loud rife shots that rang through the air, Lilly joined her too.

The fourth set of steps led to the final balcony. Still huffing and puffing, Clementine searched for another set of steps that would take them to ground level, but there was nothing, and they were still a good ten feet above the ground. Clementine heard gunshots ring above her, the sound bouncing off the metal frame of the fire escape and rattling her skull. "Oh shit," Christa cursed from behind Clementine after noticing the dead end. She tried to think of something, some other way, but there was nothing. "Up!" She finally decided. "Get back up!" She tried to usher the group back up the metal steps, but then she saw Lilly looking down at her from the top.

"That's not happening," Lilly told her, showing Christa her rifle to signify the army of walkers that had now flooded the roof. The notion seemed to upset Johnny.

"Alex…" He sobbed under his breath, realising that he would have been devoured by the walkers by now.

The group were stuck – trapped between an army of walkers and a ten foot drop. It was game over. At least, that was the thought going through all of their heads as the rain continued to beat down on them until a pair of white lights broke the pool of darkness underneath them and shone in their eyes, near-blinding them. At first, the two lights looked like they might have been the shining eyes belonging to some massive beast, but as the roaring monster came closer, Clementine saw that they were the headlights of a vehicle – and that vehicle was an RV.

"You guys look like you could use a little help," Coach said and chuckled, his head peering out of the window beside the driver's seat of the RV.

Christa looked around her, the rest of the group seemed happy enough to see the RV again, but how exactly did this help their current situation? "You wouldn't happen to have a ladder on that thing would you?" She asked Coach, knowing the answer.

"Nope," Coach said as he moved the RV closer to the metal balcony where the group gathered. "You're gonna have to jump."

"You can't be serious?" Christa asked Coach as she measured the distance between the roof of the RV and the balcony. Coach was moving the RV now, reversing the RV towards the balcony, but an awkwardly placed arrangement of recycling units kept Coach from being able to park the RV right up against the balcony, and the units were too low to be able to bridge the gap. Christa soon realised that jumping was their only option.

Looking down at the gap made Christa feel queasy. She felt light-headed as she measured about seven foot between her and the RV. But the balcony was higher up, giving them an advantage. If she were to jump, she would have to climb up onto the balcony and jump from the top of the railing which disallowed her a running start. She knew one thing for sure; she sure as hell wasn't going first.

As the first few walkers began to circle the RV, Omid climbed up onto the railing. Clementine saw him take a deep breath before he leapt into the air and flung himself to the roof of the RV. Everyone's hearts stopped as they watched Omid fly for a good couple of seconds, though the jump seemed to last a lifetime. He slammed into the back of the vehicle, his legs dangling over the back. He forced himself up until his entire body was on the roof of the RV. Although he laid still for a couple for a couple of seconds, likely catching his breath, he eventually sat up and gave the group a big thumbs up. Now, Clementine was up. Christa helped her up onto the railing and kept her balance as she braced herself for the jump. On the roof of the RV, Omid held out his arms, ready to catch her. Like Omid, Clem took a deep breath. She crouched down and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she sprang up and lifted off into the air. For those long two seconds, Clem soared like a bird. Both her feet slammed onto the edge of the RV, and she threw out her hand for Omid to grab. He clutched her hand and pulled her into his arms before she could fall backwards. _So far so good_, Christa thought to herself optimistically, realising she was next up.

* * *

Walkers had begun to surround the RV, likely attracted by the loud THUD sounds each of them had made jumping the gap. They were mostly harmless, however, simply rocking the RV from side to side like a see-saw. Every now and again, Coach would drive the RV back and forth a few feet to shake the walkers off. But of course, he was careful not to do this when someone was jumping. Christa and Molly had both made the jump successfully. It was Todd's turn to jump as Tom opened up the hatch in the RV's roof to start letting people in. He quickly ushered Omid and Christa inside, but Clementine remained on the roof in Molly's care. Clementine turned sharply at the sound of another THUD as Todd closed the gap between the balcony and the RV – just about. Molly and Clem could see his hands where he had grabbed the back of the RV, his face peering slightly above enough to see his eyes. As Molly grabbed one hand and Clementine the other, together the two pulled Todd up onto the roof. He laid on his back for a while, still catching his breath, until he eventually disappeared into the RV, but not before he thanked Molly and Clem a few short of twenty times for saving his life. He was followed by Lilly, the sound of her boots hitting the RV's roof creating the loudest THUD so far. Lilly, however, did not require any help jumping the gap. Instead, she brushed herself off and joined the others in the RV. Clementine looked across the gap to see Johnny balancing himself on the railing as the fire escape continued to squeal and rattle. He looked terrified as the fire escape began to loosen from its hinges behind him.

Clementine couldn't tell if those were raindrops or tears running down Johnny's cheeks, but the sounds of Johnny whimpering and sobbing suggested the latter. Johnny rubbed his eyes with the back of one hand whilst the other held tight to a metal bar above him, keeping him balanced on the railing. For the longest time, Johnny didn't move. As though he wasn't sure whether or not he wanted to jump or not. Then, something drove Johnny to push himself off his feet and into the air. Molly held out her hand, sure that he was going to make it. But Johnny kept falling before them both. At the last second, his hand lurched and grabbed the RV, and his body slammed against the back of the vehicle, shaking the entire RV. Then, his second hand grabbed the roof. Johnny was now dangling from the roof of the RV, desperately clinging to the edge of the roof. Molly and Clem raced forward, each grabbing one of Johnny's arms. When she came close to him, Clementine could clearly see that Johnny was in fact crying.

"Pull him up!" Molly told Clementine as she tried to heave Johnny onto the roof, but she wasn't strong enough.

"It's okay!" Johnny insisted. "I could climb down," he explained as he looked below him. He was sure that he would be able to climb down the back of the RV and jump inside from ground level. At least, he was before he saw the walker staggering towards him. From where he hung, Johnny could see the walker clawing for his leg, it's venomous teeth visible as it screamed for a taste of human flesh. "PULL ME UP!" He screamed at the two.

The walker swung at Johnny's leg uncontrollably until one of its claws ripped through his jeans, tearing his skin and drawing blood. Johnny cried in pain as Molly and Clem tried desperately to pull him up, but the walker had a hold of Johnny's leg now. The creature dug its claws into Johnny's thigh as it wrapped its cold, dead hands around him, leaning in to try and bite a chunk out of his ripe leg. Clementine pulled and pulled, but Johnny would not shift.

"Let him go," a voice bellowed from behind the two. Clementine turned, still clinging desperately to Johnny's arm, to see Tom poking his head out the open hatch to the RV. "Just let him go," Tom repeated, hoping the two would listen this time.

Clementine looked back at Johnny. His eyes seemed to tell her to listen to Tom. When he spoke, all he said was : "Please…", though Clementine wasn't sure what that meant. Did Johnny _want_ them to leave him?

Johnny looked below him. He could see the walker about to dig its venomous teeth into his leg when the pick of an ice tool came crashing down, tearing through its skull and hammering the beast into the back of the RV like a nail in a bloody mess. Molly pulled Hilda free and let the zombie slump to the ground. Finally, with their combined strength, Molly and Clem pulled Johnny to the roof of the RV. When his feet were finally on the roof, the three of them laid back on the roof where they stayed to catch their breath for a good few minutes. When Clementine looked back, Tom was gone, and the RV was on its way out of the city.

* * *

When they were finally back inside the RV, Molly and Clem helped Johnny to a seat beside Todd, ignoring the questions being fired across the vehicle. Lilly barked the same question repeatedly. "Was he bitten?" she asked interminably as they lowered Johnny, whom they assumed Lilly was talking about, onto the sofa. Johnny had gone pale. He was silent, and his eyes didn't appear to move. Johnny sat, shaking slightly whether it was from the cold or the shock, showing no signs of emotion, lost in a trance. Clem sat beside Molly as she tore apart Johnny's jeans, a little bit too eagerly, where the walker had scratched him. The walker had sunk its claws in deep, cutting a deep gash into Johnny's thigh and sending the skin surrounding the wound a sickly shade of purple. Molly wiped sweat from her brow as she wondered whether or not Johnny would survive this. Could just a successful swipe from a walker's claws kill him? Would she need to put a bullet between his eyes like she should have done with Ryan – but couldn't? Not killing Ryan had gotten another innocent person bitten and killed. Now the pressure was on her to make the same decision again, but this time make the right choice. She tore a loose strand of material from Johnny's jeans and wrapped it around his thigh, just above the bite. Johnny didn't scream, but he grabbed Molly's shoulder and bit his lip hard enough to draw blood as she tightened it around his leg. As Molly pulled the two ends of the knot together, tightening it as much as possible, Johnny squealed. "Cry baby," Molly called him with only a hint of venom. They smiled at each other seconds before Johnny passed out. "I'll take it from here," a woman said from behind Molly as she patted her on the back for her good work. Alice was already prepared with a bucket of water, a flannel and a first aid kit. She cleaned up Johnny's leg as Molly took a seat beside him. She didn't take her eye of Johnny for a second as she slowly went to sleep on Todd's shoulder.

Sat inside the RV, Clementine watched Johnny for the next hour. He didn't take his head out of his hands even once. Even when he started to cry, he did his best to cover his tears. What had happened back at The Marsh House had changed everything. Tom had told Clementine to leave Johnny to die, but she hadn't done that, even when it seemed that Johnny himself had wanted her to. She took a good look around her. Molly slept on Todd's shoulder next to Donald and Alice. Donald's face had lit up when Clementine showed him the crutches Johnny had found, but he hadn't gotten a chance to test them out yet, as Coach hadn't stopped driving since they left The Marsh House, and understandably so. Omid and Christa sat beside Clementine. Omid sat and did nothing but rub Christa's belly for the first hour, except for taking the occasional swig of whiskey when he thought nobody was looking. Sat opposite them, Tom was silent. He seemed to look at the entire group the same way these days: with contempt. It didn't matter who had been responsible for the loss of his wife and daughter, Tom hated the entire group all the same. That was, except for Lilly, who seemed to be the only person in the group who was anything like him, which was likely why they had butted heads in the past. The RV still silent, Clementine took the walkie-talkie out of her backpack and started talking, even though she didn't press the red button when she spoke.

"We found Molly," she said into the radio, "_and_ her friends."

"Yeah, you did," Lee said, sat to her right. Lee put his arm around Clem the way he always used to. "You did good today, sweet pea."

Lee's words did not convince Clementine, however, whose mind was still on Alex and Johnny. The image of Johnny looking at her as she tried to pull him up onto the roof of the RV, his eyes begging her to just let go, had been cemented into her brain. "Lee… does Johnny want to die?"

"I don't know, Clem," Lee admitted, stroking her shoulder as he said so. "He's very upset about losing Alex, but there's no reason for him to give up like that. The kid's just lost, that's all. But he'll find his way. We all do.. in time."

"Yeah…" Clem murmured, still uncertain and still worried about Johnny, who had drifted off to sleep in front of her. "I miss you, Lee…"

"I miss you too, Clem," Lee told her as Clementine fell asleep on his lap. Lee stroked her hair as the girl dreamt of better days, filled with better people.

* * *

As Molly slept soundly on his shoulder, Todd looked around him. He couldn't help but notice the group's many faults and weaknesses, things that made Todd feel very unsafe. He saw the old man sat beside his wife who was missing his leg, he had heard people talk about Tom, the man who had almost killed one member of the group earlier that day, and he watched as Lilly, the only member of the group who seemed to know what they were doing, try to piece together the fragments of a torn map. Two people had died since Clementine and her friend had shown up to "save" him, Molly and Ryan, including Ryan himself! He had hoped that whoever would come to their rescue, if they ever did come, would know of some safe haven where the group could drive to as the sun set and live happily ever after. _Is that too much to ask_, Todd thought to himself, _just one simple stroke of luck?_ But there was no such happy ending to be heard of. Instead, the group were driving on the road to nowhere hoping to come across some place that was safer than Savannah. As he looked around him again, at the helpless group of survivors who had piled into this RV day after day losing more and more people every time the sun set, none of them with a shred of hope left, he began to wonder who it had been who had truly needed help the most. Who had really come to whose rescue? Because Todd sure as shit didn't feel safe piled in the back of that RV.

"I've got it!" Lilly cheered, breaking the silence. No one knew what to say. Whether that was because no one knew what she was talking about or because no one had ever actually seen Lilly cheer before remained to be seen. She held one half of the torn map in front of her. "Coach, you may want to take the next exit," she told the driver, whose eyes were still on the highway. "Because I think I've just found us a new home."

This seemed to get the attention of everyone in the RV, each and every member of the group sat forward, waiting for an explanation from Lilly as though she was some kind of prophet. But Todd remained laid back in his seat, and didn't bother to wake Molly. There was no reason to start getting excited. Wherever they went, however fast they ran, the walkers would always find them. _Always_.

**TO BE CONTINUED.**

**Next time on ****_The Walking Dead_****: As they set out to find a new home, Clementine and the group experience some trouble on the road. The group also become more and more concerned about Johnny, who hasn't been the same since the loss of Alex. Meanwhile, a new and terrifying evil emerges from nearby in the form of a group of bandits who are out for blood.**

**Big thanks to everyone who left reviews for my last couple of chapters! Getting feedback really helps and you guys have been great for that! Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the final chapter in this episode. I promise big things are coming in Episode Three! Things that could make you hate or love this story - we'll see! But, before that, I want to show you guys Part II of Tales of Crawford. This will allow me some time to finish Episode Three and hopefully you guys will enjoy it just as much! So, Tales of Crawford is on its way, as is Episode Three. In the meantime, please let me know what you guys thought of this chapter and this episode overall! And what do you want to see next? Let me know, and the next chapter will be uploaded before you know it!**

**-George :)**


	18. Tales of Crawford: Part II

The Walking Dead

Tales of Crawford Part II

**Hey, guys! I hope you all enjoyed Episode Two of The Walking Dead: Season Two, and thanks for checking out this new chapter: Part II of Tales of Crawford. Not long ago, I published the first part in a two-part story called Tales of Crawford, a fan-made prequel to the video game that focuses on Crawford and its residents and gives an idea as to how the town and its people may have come to fall. This story takes place between Episodes One and Two of The Walking Dead: Season One. If you haven't already, check out Part One. Before we begin, however, here's a quick recap!**

**Previously on _Tales of Crawford_: Sheriff Jeremiah Winters keeps the peace day and night in Crawford, a small community in Savannah that has survived the walker outbreak thanks to its fearless leader: Oberson Crawford. His strict policies: no elderly, no sick and no children, are what he believes keep the town alive. But when Jerry discovers that is wife is pregnant, Jerry must confide in his trusted friend Dr Logan, as well as another Crawford resident Anna, whom Jerry has been sleeping with behind his wife's back. However, when Oberson is made aware of Jerry's secret, he takes drastic action. Jerry's wife is executed in front of him, and the ex-sheriff knows he has been betrayed. But by who? Now, he plots his revenge.**

* * *

Tommy had never seen somebody drink to murder before, and yet, there before him stood Oberson pouring the contents of a nine-year old bottle of gin into a crystal clear glass filled with ice. The clear liquid swam through the blocks of ice beautifully as Johnny watched the liquid bubble. The drink was clear as water, but Tommy could smell the alcohol in the air. Or perhaps that had been the reeking stench of death that still lingered in his nostrils. He couldn't get rid of it. He could still taste, smell and _see_ the blood that had been sprayed over him like a garden sprinkler of crimson rainwater when Doug had blown Jerry's wife's brains out in front of him. Oberson had given Jerry the task of executing her himself, but the ex-sheriff hadn't complied unsurprisingly. He had barely even been able to dish out the punishment to the bitch who had stolen the medicine from Dr Ashe – punishment she had well deserved. Though Oberson seemed angry at first, he hadn't taken long to warm to the idea of declaring Tommy the new sheriff of Crawford, an idea that pleased Tommy more than anyone.

Tommy stood beside Doug and Jackson as Oberson poured them each a drink from the opposite side of his desk. He poured his own glass last, and when everybody had a drink in their hand he raised his own and shouted: "To Sheriff Tommy Summers!", which the four of them then repeated slightly louder in a chorus. They swung their glasses in the air and clinked them together in a circle of cheers, spilling small drops of gin on Oberson's desk. Tommy downed his drink with a gulp in a feeble attempt to appear masculine in the presence of his men. But the bitter, choking sound he gave off as the gin burned through his throat and down his gullet diminished any hopes of appearing as hard-as-nails as he'd hoped. He heard Doug laugh and Jackson chuckle whilst Oberson simply looked embarrassed for Tommy as he rolled his eyes. _They don't think I'm fit for this_, Tommy thought in a sudden fit of panic. But then Tommy remembered how much faith Oberson had had in Jerry, and how the disgraced sheriff had let him and all of Crawford down in the end. Oberson obviously wasn't the best judge in character. Tommy knew that he was perfect for this job. _I just have to prove it_, he thought as he looked down at the silver badge pinned to his shirt with a smug smile. The badge didn't look half-bad on him.

* * *

The metal door to the dark and gloomy basement wailed as it was forced open, breaking the sullen silence that Jerry had long since become well-acquainted with. The first visitor that Jerry had received in all his time down in his cell stepped forward, their footsteps echoing across the small, square room. Jerry pulled himself out of the darkest corner of his cell where the ashamed, disgraced sheriff had been hiding his humiliated and wounded self. As he stepped out of the shadows, limping with every step, his visitor's face became clear in the light of the single lantern they held in their hand by their freckled face. The lantern's light danced frantically in the room's cold atmosphere sending shadows in the shape of monsters scurrying across the room's damp walls. Jerry could see his own shadow captured on the wall. He hadn't noticed how skinny he'd become. He looked down at the scrawny pieces of meat that supported him that were supposed to be his legs. Since he had first disappeared in the darkness of that prison cell, there had been no light so see the puny individual that Oberson and his failure to feed Jerry had turned him into. But now that he could see himself, Jerry knew that not even Lillian would recognise him like this. He let out a tired sigh as he remembered his wife and how she had met her undeserving end. He ran his dry fingers across his dirty, withered face and felt a sheet of hair that covered his jawline. He had grown a beard. He stood for a moment, barefoot wearing only a dirtied pair of briefs and a musty, old white (though it had now turned a shade of muddy brown) tank top. To his visitor, he must have looked like some kind of bum. _Even a bum would be getting better treatment than this_, Jerry thought.

He approached the girl stood before his cell, her free hand wrapped around one of the cell's sturdy metal bars. Somehow, Anna still recognised Jerry. Perhaps it was because she had seen him at his worst before. Or perhaps she just knew him better than anyone. Either way, seeing her alive was a relief to Jerry. He had feared the worst when his affair with Anna had become common knowledge of Oberson and his followers. "Hey," she said feebly and with regret. She had obviously hoped that the next time the two spoke, it would be under better circumstances. But such was not the case.

"Hey yourself," Jerry replied sharply, unsure of what else to say. The elephant in the room was there, and wasn't leaving anytime soon.

"Listen, Jerry," Anna said. "I'm so sorry about Lillian." The words alone cut Jerry deep like a knife a he relived the pain of losing his wife all over again. The gaping wound the knife left continued to throb with the pain of loss as Jerry tried desperately to think what he could possibly say next.

"Yeah, me too." He couldn't look her in the eye. Every time he did, it was a reminder of how unfaithful he had been. All the lies he'd told, and all the decisions he regretted so deeply.

Anna decided to swallow what she had planned to say next. Jerry guessed that she had intended to spit out another round of empty and pitiful apologies. Instead she skipped straight to the reason why she was down here. "Oberson's letting you go in the morning," she told him. This was news to Jerry, For all he knew, Oberson had locked him away, thrown away the key and forgotten all about Crawford's old sheriff already. "Tommy's got your room, but you can stay with me. That is, if you want."

Jerry gave Anna his best attempt at a smile, but it did little to convince her. The idea of moving in with her seemed in bad taste, and just plain disrespectful. "Listen, Anna, I…" Then her words really began to sink in. "Wait, Tommy has my room? The sheriff's room? They made that weasel sheriff of Crawford?"

"I don't know what to say," Anna admitted, and she couldn't have spoken more truthfully.

"You can agree how stupid that is, surely? He's just a kid, after all."

"A kid whose spent the last three months kissing Oberson's ass," Anna explained. "He learned a lot from you too. Oberson thinks he's ready. And so do I."

"What?" Jerry was more confused than ever now. He sat on his buttocks with his hands in his dirty, unkempt and shaggy hair.

"Don't you know what this means? You can finally retire, Jerry! With Tommy and his men playing Cowboys and Indians, there's nothing from stopping you living happily ever after."

"Happily ever after? My wife is dead, Anna! Oberson and his people murdered her right in front of me! I have nothing. Do you hear me? NOTHING! IT'S ALL GONE!" His voice bellowed across the room, shaking the bars of the old prison cell and causing Anna to pull away from him in fear.

"You have me…" She said before turning away from Jerry, taking her lantern with her. The last glimmer of light disappeared from the room as Anna slammed the door behind her. The sound played back in Jerry's ears for the next few hours as he sat alone in the darkness with his thoughts.

The next morning, they came for him.

* * *

"You don't speak to anyone. You don't touch anyone. You don't so much as even look at anybody else around Crawford or so help me God you'll be back in that swanky prison cell before you can even begin to apologise," Tommy dictated to Jerry, his silver badge reflecting the shine of the morning sun as he strode up and down in front of him. Tommy, or Sheriff Summers as the people of Crawford had been ordered to address him from here on out, looked awfully pleased with himself as Jerry dressed himself in some old man's rags that Doug had thrown at him after he had been dragged from his cell only minutes ago.

Tommy was wearing his old uniform, hat included, as he span his pistol around his finger like a character in a western flick. But Tommy only embarrassed himself when the gun span off his finger and out of his hand. He clasped at the pistol, but his hands found only thin air. He bent over to pick the gun up, noticing Doug and Jackson smirking as he did so. He pushed his glasses from the tip of his nose back to his eyes as he tucked his pistol away. "Just get out of here," he finally said. He signaled at Doug and Jackson to follow him and led them back towards the schoolhouse. Jerry stood and watched them as they disappeared inside. Looking around him, Jerry realised he was lost. Once upon a time, he thought he might have understood Crawford and its people, but in just a single night everything he though he knew had changed. Someone had betrayed him, and Jerry was going to find out who.

Jerry took Anna up on her offer and headed to her room, exchanging awkward glances with her neighbours as he did so. At first, they seemed curious as to why he was there after the argument they had witnessed between the two. But when Anna let Jerry into her room, they simply turned their noses up at him. The highlight of tomorrow's gossip would be the talk about how the widowed officer had already forgotten about his wife to move in with "that blonde girl from Block C". Jerry hated himself even more when he realised what he must have been putting Anna through. And that was the last thing Jerry needed right now; something else to feel guilty about.

The two didn't speak until Anna had shut the door behind Jerry, keeping the nosey neighbours out of their conversation. Anna then asked if she could take Jerry's coat – the dirty brown trench coat that sat over his shoulders and fell almost to his knees.

"No," he said a little too firmly. "I've got something I need to do." The last thing he wanted was to be rude, but there was somewhere Jerry needed to be. "I just came to pick up the item we discussed," Jerry explained vaguely as though a million ears were still listening.

Anna nodded, and disappeared for a couple of minutes before returning. She pulled Oberson's revolver from behind her back and placed it softly in Jerry's hand. She had held onto Oberson's weapon since Jerry had brought it to her the night he had been forced to use it to execute Molly's sister. Jerry had feigned ignorance when asked about Oberson's gun, and no one had ever considered questioning Anna about the gun's disappearance. Since that night, Jerry had known that they day might come when Oberson no longer trusted Jerry with a weapon, and Jerry no longer trusted Oberson enough to be able to walk round Crawford feeling secure without one. That day had come. Weapons in Crawford were scarce, so with any luck, Oberson was still without a weapon. Jerry smiled. His plan was starting to come together beautifully.

Anna, clearly concerned by Jerry's joy, watched as he tested the gun's weight in his hand. "What are you going to do?" She asked him. He could hear the fear in her voice.

Jerry sighed. Keeping Anna out of the loop had kept her alive for this long, and Jerry wasn't prepared to risk changing that. "What I have to," he said before turning to leave the apartment. But Anna clutched onto his shoulder and span him around before Jerry could leave. Something was wrong he knew immediately.

"Wait, Jerry," she said with alarm, panicked by the thought of him leaving her on her own. "There's something you need to know," she told him. She avoided his eyes during a long pause and swallowed hard before she finally met Jerry's gaze and told him the truth.

"I'm pregnant," she told him.

Still speechless, Jerry held Anna's hands as he allowed her words to sink in; the same two words his wife told that, despite being so simple, had changed both their lives forever. His heart was racing now as he began to relive the night Lillian died all over again – that terrible night – only it wasn't Lillian with a shotgun being held to her head. It was Anna.

Realising her words had truly stunned Jerry, Anna went on. "Dr Logan he… He's already planning a procedure to terminate the baby. But I can't do it. I…" She broke into tears. "I want to have this child, Jerry. More than I want anything." She fell into his arms and wept as Jerry stroked her hair and held her tight.

Suddenly, Jerry pushed Anna out of his arms. "Stay here," he said as Anna wiped her tears. He opened the revolver to check how many bullets remained inside. _Five bullets_, he counted before deciding how many he was going to need for this. Then, Jerry turned to leave.

"Where are you going?" She asked him, as another hot tear ran down her cheek.

Jerry turned back to her. He cupped her cheek and wiped the last tear away. "You know where I'm going," he whispered to her. And then, Jerry was gone, leaving Anna alone. She held her chest as she thought about the future, and whether or not there was going to be one for her, Jerry and their child. She hoped it was a boy.

* * *

Dr Logan's office was empty when Jerry stepped inside. Across the room a large mirror had been placed beside the doctor's video camera. Jerry stood and looked at his reflection. The man who stood through the looking glass was someone Jerry did not recognise. He wore an old and word out flannel shirt under the brown trench coat with ruined jeans, and his unkempt beard coated his jaw like a woolly jumper. The sound of the office door slamming behind him alarmed Jerry, and he turned around sharply to face Dr Logan, who stood impatiently with a clipboard in his arms.

"Something I can do for you, Jerry?" He said in a blunt tone. Jerry could tell the doctor clearly didn't want Jerry in here by the way the doctor tapped his foot on the floor repeatedly, the way he always did when he felt his time was being wasted.

"Doc," Jerry said pitifully, glad to see a familiar face. "I need to talk to you."

The doctor seemed nervous now. He crept over to his desk where he laid the clipboard down before sitting atop the desk with his arms cross, waiting to hear what Jerry had to say. When Jerry was silent, the doctor shrugged. "Well?" he asked.

"I…" Jerry stumbled, realising he should have planned out what he was going to say beforehand. Then he realised something. "Aren't you even going to ask where I've been?"

"I don't have to," Logan said. "I saw the little show Oberson put on outside when they dragged your wife from her bed… Horrible," He told Jerry with a look of what seemed like genuine regret. "I did warn you, Jerry. But even so, Lillian deserved better."

"So you weren't the one who told Oberson that she was pregnant?" Jerry asked him, earning an interesting reaction from the doctor. Logan shot out of his seat and stood before Jerry. His eyes were wide with disbelief.

"What? No… No, of course not," Dr Logan said. He sounded wounded by Jerry's question. "I can't believe you'd even think that. Jesus, Jerry!" He waved Jerry away with his hand as he paced across the room. He scratched his chin as he opened his office door to check for any unwanted visitors outside his door. When he saw that the hallway outside his room was empty, he slammed the door shut and sighed, still disappointed in Jerry for even thinking this way.

"I only ask because… someone did," Jerry explained coldly. He watched the doctor pace across the room nervously, showing all the known signs of a liar.

"How do you know? Maybe… I don't know, maybe she just started showing symptoms or… maybe she told somebody else or…" Jerry could see the doctor was panicking now. He was clearly afraid of Jerry and what he might do if he saw past his lies. He was scared of him, and Jerry liked it.

"She wasn't showing any symptoms and she didn't tell anybody. Hell, she'd have given me static if she'd have known I even told you," Jerry explained. "She didn't trust you. Apparently, she was right." He pulled Oberson's revolver out of his flannel shirt.

"Whoa, Jerry, please… Don't do this," Logan pleaded as he raised his hands to his head.

"Just answer me one thing," Jerry said to the doctor who now knelt before him, his hands still raised as he pleaded endlessly. "Would you have told Oberson about Anna too?"

"Anna?" The doctor seemed confused. He wiped the sweat from his brow as he tried to wrap his head around Jerry's question. "You and her? She's having your child?" He asked Jerry, pretending not to know about their affair.

"Yes. She is," Jerry dictated. "Because you're not going to say a word to Oberson, or anyone." He tucked the revolver away and marched towards the door. "We're having this baby, Walter. And you're going to help us. That's the only reason you're still alive…"

As Jerry's hand tightened around the doorknob, Dr Logan jumped back onto his feet. He turned sharply to Jerry. "I didn't tell a soul about Lillian, Jerry," he swore. He walked closer to Jerry, his eyes on the floor granite floor. When he reached Jerry, he put a hand on his shoulder and finally looked him in the eye.

"It was Anna," the doctor confessed.

That was the moment everything changed. The rug had been pulled from underneath him, and Jerry felt like an honest fool. All this time, it had been Anna. The lies she'd told, the game she'd played, all to place Jerry here and now, pointing a gun at Dr Logan's head and pulling the trigger, saving Anna and her unborn child. Jerry wondered what the next step of her plan was when Dr Logan took his hand off his shoulder.

"You're lying," Jerry said to him, despite how greatly he knew the doctor's words to be true.

"Oberson came here the day before Lillian's death, asking me if I knew. He told me that Anna told him all about Lillian and her pregnancy, but I didn't say a word. I swear to God, Jerry, I never told him anything, not even then," the doctor explained.

Jerry felt humiliated. He turned to leave the room, gripping the doorknob again, but he couldn't open the door. Out there awaited nothing but liars, cheats and killers. Could he not trust anybody? "What will you do about Anna?" He turned to ask the doctor.

"You know I can't lie to Oberson again, Jerry. I have to tell him. And you have to tell Anna that this procedure… As awful as it may be… It needs to happen," Walter said.

Jerry nodded and pulled the door open. On his way out of the room, he realised how lucky he had been to have the doctor though this ordeal. Even if he hadn't been able to save Lillian, he had damn well tried. After he left the doctor's office, Jerry realised that he should have at least thanked him for that. Outside, Jerry's heart sank when he saw Anna approaching Dr Logan's office from the hallways.

Anna appeared out of the hallway's gloominess with her hands in her pockets and her head bowed, though she perked up when she noticed Jerry stood outside Dr Logan's door.

"Hey," she said as cheerfully as she could. She noticed the revolver in Jerry's hand and wondered if it had been used.

"Hey yourself," Jerry replied with a half-smile. The list of questions Jerry had to ask her was endless. But simply why she had done it was all he really wanted and needed to understand.

"So, how'd it go," Anna asked him. She titled her head towards the door to the doctor's office. Jerry knew exactly what she meant, but he hadn't done as she hoped. He hadn't let himself fall into her trap or allowed her to trick him into destroying his life.

That was when Dr Walter's ugly head peered out of his open door, once again intruding on a conversation happening outside his office. One he was not a part of, but wanted to be.

Anna gave Jerry a look that sent a hundred daggers flying his way. He could see how angry she was that Jerry hadn't done what she'd hoped, despite his macho talk from before.

"Everything okay out here?" Walter asked, still sweaty from having his life flash before his eyes a good couple of times earlier with Jerry and the revolver being pointed in his face.

"Yeah," Jerry said. He put a hand on Anna's shoulder in an attempt to reassure her that things would be okay. "Fine."

"So, are we ready?" Dr Logan asked nervously. It was time.

Anna knew what the doctor meant immediately. "What? No! Jerry, I thought we said… I thought you…" Anna began to cry again as Jerry led her to Logan's office.

"Anna, I'm sorry, but we have to do this," Jerry told her, wiping her tears away as he did so. "I know you want this child, and so do I. Maybe one day things will change but, for now, we don't have any other choice." Despite everything, Jerry could still feel his heart breaking.

"It's okay, I'll take good care of you," Dr Logan said as he led Anna into his office with a hand on her shoulder. "It'll all be over before you know it."

Jerry heard Anna bawl uncontrollably as she disappeared into the doctor's office. Jerry left the doctor to his work and headed home. On his way, he struggled to remove the haunting sounds of Anna's cries from his head. Despite everything, Jerry felt overpoweringly guilty for betraying Anna like that, even after everything she'd done. Jerry was wondering whether Anna would have had a boy or a girl when he heard the first gunshots.

* * *

Jerry raced back through Crawford's dark hallways, retracing his steps back to Dr Logan's office, as the sounds of the gunshots still echoed through the halls. When he arrived outside Logan's office, he almost slipped on the pool of blood that dressed the floor. The blood belonged to Doug, who laid on his back bleeding out as he held his gunshot wound with his hands, blood flowing through the gaps between his fingers. "Help me," he cried to Jerry as he reached out with one of his bloody hands. The portly, bearded man looked terrified by the figure stood across the room who was hidden away in the darkness. Jerry could only see a pair of arms held out from the mist of black, pointing a 9mil pistol in Jerry's direction. Another gun shot fired, and the miniature explosion startled Jerry as he saw the bullet take Doug in the head. The bulled shot out the back of his skull as Doug's eye's rolled into his head, which then fell limp to the floor as though he had just fallen asleep. Around him, Jerry saw another couple of bodies, all still and lifeless. And all soaked in fresh blood. Jerry recognised the faces of the men, but knew not their names. Finally, the shooter revealed themselves as the figure emerged from the darkness, their gun still smoking form the rounds it had fired. Jerry recognised the gun, and its owner. The pistol had belonged to Dr Logan, and yet here stood Anna with the gun in her hands. She wiped tears away with the back of her sleeve as she raised her gun again. She was pointing the gun at Jerry now.

"Give me the gun, Anna." Jerry didn't waste any time. Anna was scared and armed. That was a dangerous combination. He sidestepped and tried to peer through the open door to Dr Logan's office, but couldn't catch a glimpse of Walter. There was no way the doctor was still alive. "Please, Anna. Nobody else needs to get hurt."

Jerry could see that Anna was shaking. The pistol rattled in her hands as she looked down the sight of the gun. Confused and afraid, Anna struggled to even put a proper sentence together. "Jerry… I… I couldn't let them," she began to lower the gun as her tears returned. "I'm sorry, Jerry. I couldn't let them take our baby." She began to weep as she looked at the corpses around her. They wouldn't stay dead for long. "Why were you going to let them take our child, Jerry? Why?" She asked manically.

"Because it's not my child, Anna," Jerry explained calmly, unfazed by the gun being pointed in his face. "My child died with their mother the night you gave her up to Oberson."

"What? I…" Anna had lowered the gun to her side now. Hot tears run down her cheeks in streaks that washed the blood from her face. "I did it for us," she told him innocently, as though Jerry should have already understood so.

"I know you did," Jerry told her as he approached Anna cautiously. "Now give me the gun, Anna. Let's stop this now." Jerry took a step toward Anna when she pulled the gun back up into his face, her grip tight around the pistol's butt and her finger itching on the trigger.

"NO!" She cried out, the gun now back in Jerry's face. She looked at the mess around her, and thought long and hard for a moment. "Let's run away together. You and me. We'll make a go of it out there in the city, or the countryside. Sure, it'll be dangerous. But anywhere's better than here. And I know we'll be okay so long as we have each other."

And then he saw it. The innocent young woman in front of him who had lost everything in the wake of the apocalypse. Her brothers, her sisters, her mother, her father – all had perished when the dead had risen, and she'd had only Jerry left, someone she'd have gone to extreme lengths to protect and have as her own. He saw the woman who would lie, cheat and even murder all to keep who she thought was her true love for herself. He saw the woman who was on the verge of losing her sanity, all because that same man had betrayed her. It hadn't been Anna who had killed Lillian, or Dr Logan, or Doug or anybody else. It hadn't been her that had caused the fall of Crawford. It had been Jerry. And now, with a gun to his head, Jerry could only pray that Anna would pull the trigger. _Let's end this now_, he thought.

"You know I can't do that, Anna." Jerry stared deep into Anna's eyes as the pistol continued to rattle in her shaking hands. "So if you're going to kill me, then just do it. Let me be with my wife. If not, just put the fucking gun down and let me do it myself." He bowed his head, hoping that Anna would pull the trigger. As he closed his eyes, he prayed that the next time he opened them , his wife would be waiting beside him. But Anna lowered the gun.

"No," she cried madly. "You don't get to do that. You don't get to be with her. I won't let you. I won't let you leave. What about me? What am I supposed to do?" Anna stared at him, eyes filled with tears, waiting desperately for the answer she needed.

"I don't care," Jerry said coldly. He stared back at her. Whatever happened next, it didn't matter to him in the slightest. Anna could go to hell. And so could all of Crawford.

Anna took the gun and pressed the barrel against the bottom of her chin, weeping when the cold metal touched her skin. He finger tightened around the trigger, and Anna closer her eyes.

"ANNA!" Jerry cried, but it was too late. Anna forced her finger down on the trigger and gun clicked. But all the gun did was click. It was empty. _Out of ammo_, Jerry thought, relieved. Anna, noticing his initial concern and his relief at the sight of her safety, began to smile.

"You do care," she said as she lowered the empty gun. She dropped the gun and was about to walk towards Jerry to embrace him, a manic smile still beaming across her freckled face, when a hand of sharp claws grabbed her leg and sunk deep into her calves.

Anna squealed as the walker dug it's deadly claws further into her flesh, sending her crashing to the floor. She was on the floor now. The walker was climbing up her leg and drooling all over her fresh and fleshy body. She reached out to Jerry and screamed for him to help her, but he stood motionless, watching the walker mount her and prepare to feast. Jerry watched the undead creature that was once his trusted friend Dr Logan sink it's teeth into Anna's soft neck, where Jerry had before planted many warm kisses, and tear a shred of flesh that dripped with the girl's red blood. Jerry felt nothing as he watched the walker chomp Anna's flesh and dive in for another bite. Jerry had not noticed, but Anna's eyes had never left Jerry right until the moment the final beacon of light left them.

"Why aren't you helping her?" Tommy asked with panic in his voice from beside Jerry having seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Jerry was silent, but when Tommy pulled out his gun, he pushed Tommy back and shook his head. _He's too late anyway_, Jerry thought.

"What the fuck happened?" Tommy asked Jerry as the walker continued to feast on Anna's flesh. Eventually, the walker had torn so much of the skin from Anna's body that the fleshy skeleton that remained was unrecognisable, and could have belonged to anybody. Tommy gipped at the sight of the half-eaten corpse and had to turn away. But Jerry didn't take his eyes off Anna for second. He watched as Dr Logan continued to devour her, and decided that justice had been served. As the walkers around them began to rise, Jerry decided it was time to go. Tommy drew his weapon again, but Jerry pushed him aside.

"Don't," Jerry said. The three walkers and Dr Logan got back on their feet as they caught a glimpse of the two men that could be their next meal. "Don't," he repeated. He had an idea.

Despite beginning to think the man might have gone insane, Tommy listened to Jerry and tucked his pistol away. The small crowd of walkers assembled and began to approach Tommy, their arms reached out and mouths made agape by the smell of more food. Tommy backed away from the swarm and fled, catching a glimpse of Jerry disappearing around a corner up ahead. Why had Jerry insisted he keep the walkers alive? How was he supposed to keep them from hurting anybody? "Unless…" Tommy thought aloud as he made a shocking realisation that shook him to his core. Jerry really had gone insane.

* * *

Oberson's office was empty. Outside the his window, Jerry took a moment to look around Crawford Square. Although most of the town had been absorbed by the mist of darkness that fell every night, he could still tell how far the town's fences were from here. It wouldn't take long to reach them, and he'd be able to do so whilst staying out of the streets too. Nobody would even see him leave. Jerry would put the town and his time there all behind him, and let Crawford crumble. In the window's reflection, he saw Jackson pull a gun.

"You've got some balls showing your face here, cowboy." Jackson's raspy voice was followed by the sounds of his gun clicking as he pointed the pistol in Jerry's face.

"Where's Oberson," Jerry demanded. His nonchalance towards having a pistol waved around in his face even scared Jackson slightly – he never even flinched.

"With his wife," Jackson explained, still with his gun raised. "You ain't got no business here."

That was when Tommy appeared behind Jackson, a gun in his hand too. "Fucker!" He shouted as he pointed his pistol in Jerry's face. "You should've seen what this asshole did."

Jerry now had two pistols pointed in his face, but he was yet to panic.

"What the fuck happened?" Jackson asked him. He watched as Tommy wiped his sweaty brow and tried to put what he'd seen into words.

"He killed us," Tommy explained. "All of us."

The Mexican standoff was interrupted by a sudden wave of noises coming from outside that door. The three of them heard crashing, shouting, screaming and firing as they turned to the door, unsure what lied beyond it, and unsure whether they wanted to know.

* * *

As he climbed the seemingly endless wooden staircase to the top of the bell tower, Jerry could still hear the destruction below him, as Crawford's survivors fought off the increasing number of walkers laying waste to the town and its inhabitants, and spreading the fatal disease each one carried. He wasn't sure if Tommy and Jackson were behind him – there was no time to check, but nothing was going to stand in his way now. He had seen Oberson flee the school to hide away up here. This may have been the safest place, but what kind of leader abandoned his people so easily? Finally, he had reached the top of the staircase. He turned to see Oberson himself stood at the edge of the balcony, a few feet away from the bell, tightening a hangman's know around his neck. When Oberson noticed Jerry's presence, a look appeared on his face that Jerry had never seen the man wear before: fear.

Oberson reached into the back of his trousers, searching for his revolver. Jerry then pulled out Oberson's revolver. "Looking for this?" He asked mockingly. He studied the rope noose around Oberson's neck. It had been tied to the bell – Oberson had been about to jump. This disgusted Jerry even further. Not only had Oberson abandoned his people, he was about to take the coward's way out too. That same day, Jerry had wished to die too, but he had decided there was so much he needed to do first. And at the top of that list was revenge.

"What did you do, Jerry?" Oberson asked as he tugged on the rope that was now tight around his neck. He could tell from the manic look in Jerry's eyes that he must have had something to do with the outbreak. Oberson knew that look all too well, he saw it every morning when he looked in the mirror. "WHAT DID YOU DO!?" He bellowed.

Oberson's question echoed up and down the bell tower and played over and over again through Jerry's ears. "What I should have done so, so long ago. And I'm so sorry I didn't, Lillian." Tears ran down Jerry's cheeks as he took a moment to speak to his wife. A moment that was quickly interrupted by Oberson, an action he'd later regret.

"Fuck, Lillian!" Oberson cried out. "Fuck her, and fuck you, Jeremiah!" He tried to pull himself out of the knot he'd trapped himself in as he lunged towards Jerry. "She died because of you! Because of a mistake you made!" He tried desperately to wriggle free, like a rabid dog on a leash.

"I know," Jerry said, his head still bowed like he was in prayer. He then approached Oberson, who finally stopped trying to kick and squirm out of the rope as Jerry stood at his feet, towering above him. "It was my fault. My mistake."

"So… What are you doing?" Oberson asked him sheepishly. Oberson had never been afraid of Jerry, but all that had changed now. As he stared into Jerry's cold, grey, vengeful eyes, he felt his own urine trickle down his thigh. He was scared just to hear his answer.

"I'm fixing it," Jerry told him innocently as he put a hand on Oberson's shoulder. A swift and sudden kick from Jerry then sent Oberson hurling back, crashing through the splintered wooden balcony and falling down the tower as the loose rope began to tighten. When the rope had stretched out to its limit, he heard the loud SNAP of Oberson's neck, and saw Crawford's fearless leader dangling from the rope noose a few feet below.

When Jerry turned, he saw Tommy stood with Jackson at the top of the wooden staircase. By the look on their faces, the two had obviously witnessed the entire ordeal, but the fact that they had chosen not to step in said a lot to him. Jerry approached Tommy, who was shaking in his boots. Tommy looked as though he was expecting Jerry to send him tumbling back down the staircase from where he came, but instead Jerry simply removed the silver Sheriff's badge from Tommy's uniform and pinned it back on himself, where it had always fit best. He then turned to the open window at the edge of the bell tower. The light at the end of the tunnel. As he approached the window, he heard the two chattering behind him.

"Ahem," Tommy coughed in an attempt to gain Jerry's attention. Though he still feared for his life around the man. Jerry turned back to him, tapping his foot against the floor impatiently the same way an old friend of his always had. "So… Are we, you know, okay to like… go with you…Jeremiah?" He asked Jerry shyly.

"I'm not expecting you to wait around for the walkers," he replied once he got his head around Tommy's sentence. "Just… don't call me Jeremiah."

"So, what do we call you?" Jackson asked, his eyes still watching Oberson swinging loosely from his rope, the wind sending him from side to side.

Jerry Winters thought about Jackson's question for a few seconds. "Just call me 'The Sheriff'," Jerry finally told them both as he turned to leave the tower through the window. Through it, the entirety of Crawford square could be seen under the rising sun. A new day was dawning, and Jerry liked it a whole lot better than this one. _The grass is always greener on the other side_, Jerry thought to himself as he finally put Crawford behind him, never to return.

**THE END...?**

* * *

**Thanks you guys for reading _Tales of Crawford_! I hope you all enjoyed reading this short-story, I know I had a blast writing it! Episode Three is coming, but this one is proving to be the toughest Episode to write yet! So I hope you guys will bear with me. Chapter One is ready to be uploaded, and yes, we will see Jerry join the story as a regular character, which I can't wait for you guys to see! So, keep the reviews coming, and Episode Three will be up soon. Thanks as always for all your support :)  
**

**-George**


	19. Episode III - Chapter One

The Walking Dead: Season Two

Episode Three: Behind Closed Doors

Chapter One: Pit Stop

**Previously on ****_The Walking Dead_****: After receiving a cry for help from Molly and her friends who had been trapped by walkers on the roof of The Marsh House Hotel back in Savannah, Clementine and the group of survivors went back to save them. However, by the time they got there, Paul had already been killed. Also, unbeknownst to the group, Ryan had been bitten. When he turned, he also bit Alex. Johnny shot Alex to prevent him from turning too, and followed the rest of the group as they fled The Marsh House. When they finally left Savannah behind them, Lilly decided upon a new location she believed would be safe for the group to survive.**

* * *

The RV hit another bump, making the entire crew bounce in their seats, and Johnny was awake again. When he looked around him, he saw that nothing had changed. Coach was still driving the RV to this new safe zone that many in the group had started to doubt even existed, as they had been driving for days. Still, Lilly insisted that this place was quite real, and there weren't exactly a lot of other options open to them. Johnny just needed to get out, to breathe the fresh air and have something else to think about. Sat in that RV, frightened and alone, all he could think about was how much he regretted pretty much every action he'd taken since Lilly had first shown up. He regretted taking Lilly back to the campsite in the first place. He regretted trying to poison Tom, and instead causing the deaths of his wife and daughter. Above all, Johnny regretted not leaving with Alex when he'd had the chance. Now, Alex was gone, and Johnny was alone with the constant voice in his head that told him, if he kept this up, he was going to get everyone in this group killed.

"Hey, I never gave this back to you." Molly held out her walkie-talkie to Clementine, noticing that the little girl was still concerned about Johnny. "It's yours, right?"

"Yeah," Clementine said, realising she had completely forgotten about the second walkie. She took her eyes off Johnny finally to turn to Molly and smile. "I left it at The Marsh House, but I'm glad I did. We wouldn't have been able to save you and your friends without it."

Molly smiled back at Clem, even though she'd forgotten that not all of her friends had made it out of there. They hadn't arrived in time to save Ryan and Paul. Their deaths were on Molly, and her alone. "What were you doing there, Clem?" She asked in a desperate attempt to change the subject.

"There was a man," Clem began telling her story, the one she'd tried so hard to forget. "He took me away from Lee. He said he was with my parents, but he lied. Then, Lee rescued me." Molly saw Clem begin to tear up at the thought of Lee. She wiped her tears away.

"What happened to him?" Molly asked. "The man?"

"He…" Clementine struggled. "He can't hurt anyone anymore." There was a pause. For those long seconds, Molly feared that she'd forced Clementine into remembering something she'd long since tried to put behind her. But Clementine went on. "The man… He lost his family… It was our fault." She tried to fight back her tears, but failed.

"What do you mean, Clementine?" Molly was stunned.

"We found his car. There was nobody inside, but it was filled with supplies. We didn't know they were going to come back. We took everything. It was our fault his family…"

"No," Molly said as she put her arms around Clem. "Don't say that. Don't even think that."

She wrapped the girl in her arms as the RV slowly came to a halt.

"Thank God," Johnny said from across the RV, faking a smile. "I could use a break."

"I think we could all use a break right about now," Coach decided as he emerged from the driver's cabin. He winked at Clementine and Molly joyfully as he stepped outside the RV.

* * *

When Todd woke up, he found himself alone in the RV. The others had piled out of the recreational vehicle to get some fresh air, and who could blame them? The heat inside the hot prison made Todd's hair stick to his brow. Even Molly had fled outside to feel the warmth of the sun kiss her skin, despite never leaving Todd's side since they had left The Marsh House. When Todd looked around him, he discovered he wasn't alone after all. Laid on the back seat of the RV, Donald's stump was in clear sight as the old man snored away. His chest pumping as he took deep breaths in and out, Donald shielded his eyes from the shining sun with the back of his hand. Todd could see that Donald's other hand, dangling over the seat, held a book loosely. _Lord of the Flies_. Todd smirked as he wondered if it was the book that sent him to sleep. When Donald's hand dropped the book, the old man shot up, alarmed by the sound. As soon as he realised what had just happened, Donald cackled at his own stupidity, and laid back down. His laughing made Todd uncomfortable. He must have missed the joke.

"Go ahead and say it kid," Donald said to Todd. "I'm an old fool." He laughed.

"I don't think you're a fool," Todd told him honestly, though he wasn't sure that was the right answer. Even so, the old man continued to chuckle to himself.

"Well then, you're just as much a fool as I," Donald told him. "I know what you're thinking. What the hell has this old coot got to laugh about?" He tilted his head in the direction of his stump. "The answer is: not that much." Then, Donald became very serious. His smile had disappeared and he now sat upright. "I lost my son, Jamie, to those… things out there. I lost my RV that me and Alice had had for years. I lost my favourite leg." He sat forward, frowning. "I lost more than you could ever imagine. But every time, I did something," Donald explained. His smile returned and he became laid back again as he continued his speech. "I moved on." He noticed Todd's shock. "Now, I know how that must sound. And trust me, losing Jamie wasn't something I got over by sleeping on it. Neither was losing my good leg for that matter. But moving on is, really, all we _can_ do. It's what separates _us_ from _them_. We have to live for today, because there may not be a tomorrow. As clichéd as it might sound, you have to start living everyday like it's your last – because in this world, it damn well could be."

"Yeah, I got it," Todd said once Donald had wrapped up his speech. He got up to leave the RV, but before he did so, he turned to Donald. "Thanks," he said sincerely before jumping out of the RV.

"You're welcome," Donald told the kid. He tried to remember the kid's name. _Ryan, wasn't it? Or Paul?_

* * *

Outside, Johnny distanced himself from the rest of the group. Outside the RV, the group talked about their destination. Lilly explained how she knew about the place and what, according to her, made it so safe. Johnny didn't care enough to stay. Perhaps he might have taken interest if Alex was still here. But without him, finding somewhere safe to settle down didn't feel like something worth aiming for anymore. He simply couldn't picture his life without him. Apparently he hadn't been the only one not interested in Lilly's stories. On the other side of the RV, Omid stood slugging down a bottle of whiskey. When he noticed Johnny watching him, Omid pulled the bottle from his lips. "Shit," he uttered as he tried desperately to hide it. He covered the bottle beneath his jacket, but it was too late. He sighed, and wiped the dripping liquid from his chin as he revealed the half-empty bottle. Something told Johnny that he wasn't supposed to have seen what he'd just seen.

"Yeah… You weren't exactly supposed to see that," Omid admitted, kicking the dirt beneath his feet. Johnny didn't know him well, but he could tell that the guy was ashamed of himself.

"I figured," Johnny replied. He looked around him, just to make sure he _was_ the only one who'd seen him. "Listen, don't worry about it, man. I'm not gonna tell anyone."

"Really?" Omid couldn't believe his luck. He had just avoided a painful couple of hours having to explain this to Christa and the group. "Shit. Thank you so much, dude."

"Don't sweat it. Seriously." Johnny just kept walking. He didn't even think twice about what he'd seen Omid doing. It was none of his business after all.

Coach had parked the RV in the middle of the dirt road that Lilly claimed would lead them straight to their new home. Treelines bordered the dirt road. Over the horizon, Johnny could see the sun rising. Even now, as the sun began to light the sky, Johnny felt nervous. Beyond the treeline could lie any kind of threat whether it be walkers or worse. Johnny stuffed his hands in his pockets as he distanced himself from the RV even further. Further along the road, Johnny began to make out the shape of a body. He paced towards the shape, and saw that the corpse had split into two. When he was mere feet from the body, he could see the tire tread that marked the corpse's burst stomach. They had been run over, and their body had been ripped into two. The corpse lied face up in the dirt, its entrails hanging from its open belly. The corpse seemed fresh. Whatever happened here, it hadn't happened long ago. Suddenly, the corpse's eyes flickered open and it began to groan weakly at Johnny, its arms stretched out towards him. Johnny jumped, but the walker could barely move. The walker turned itself on its side and began to drag itself towards Johnny, who didn't back away. As the corpse's entrails slid from its torn belly, Johnny felt the need to retch. Instead, Johnny cried. He continued to weep as the walker hauled its upper-half even closer to Johnny, leaving its legs behind. _Thank God_, Johnny thought to himself. _Thank God I didn't let him become like this_. Johnny had promised Alex that, if he were ever bitten, he would put him out of his misery before he could turn. Johnny never thought it would ever have to come to that – but he had been wrong. Keeping his promise was the only thing Johnny didn't regret. So deep in thought, Johnny didn't see the walker that was slowly approaching him from behind.

"Johnny! Look out behind you!" Omid cried all the way over from the RV, but loud enough for Johnny to hear. He turned sharply to meet the walker that straggled towards him. It was still a couple of metres from him, and slow enough that Johnny could easily have outrun the creature. But Johnny didn't move. He stood motionless as both walkers slowly approached him. "What the hell is he doing?" Omid asked himself as Lilly and Christa came flying past him. Their weapons already drawn, they were the first to run towards Johnny. But Omid followed closely behind with the rest of the group. Even Clementine ran beside him.

"C'mon," Johnny encouraged the walkers. "C'mon you sons of bitches." He backed away slowly. The walker clawed at the air in front of him whilst the zombie that crawled made swings for his legs. Johnny dodged each attack effortlessly. It wasn't exactly a challenge - he'd managed to find the two slowest walkers in all of Georgia. He knew he was going down – he _wanted_ to go down - but not without a fight. "C'MON!" He screamed at the walkers.

"What the hell is he doing?" Lilly wondered aloud as she led the charge to the walkers, pulling her rifle from the strap on her back as she ran. She stopped suddenly to aim her rifle, carefully trying to determine which was the biggest threat to Johnny. Realising they were both seconds away from mauling him, she decided she would have to try a different tactic. "You take the crawler," she told Christa, who had now pulled out her pistol.

Johnny tripped on his own feet and fell backwards onto his side, the walkers now closing in one him. He shut his eyes as he felt their claws on all over his body. He was ready. "I'm coming, Alex," he whispered to himself as the first walker opened its mouth to sink its black teeth into Johnny's neck.

Two shots rang out simultaneously. One of the bullets took the crawler climbing up Johnny's leg. His head burst in a messy explosion of red gunk that splattered Johnny's jacket and finally made him retch. The other bullet took the second walker off his feet, hitting his shoulder and forcing him to the ground with a loud THUD, but the groans that followed suggested that Christa's shot was not as fatal as Lilly's.

Omid sat beside Johnny and patted his back, as though he was burping a toddler, as he brought up the last of his dinner. "Okay, pal. It's alright," he reassured Johnny, though he was still curious why he had let himself become surrounded by those things in the first place. But now was not the time to ask. And the last thing Omid wanted to do was piss Johnny off, and give him an excuse to bring up what he'd seen Omid doing earlier.

"What the hell is wrong with you, kid?" Lilly asked the question everyone was wondering, only she did it a little more aggressively then Omid might have done.

Johnny didn't know how to answer that. He had been putting the group in danger for weeks now. All he'd wanted to do was stop himself from ever making that same mistake again. Instead, he had done exactly that. What if one of them had been bitten? They even had a little girl with them. Johnny could have been responsible for the death of another innocent child. He saw Clementine stood in between Christa and Lilly, and felt nauseous again. When Christa finished off the wounded walker with a final shot to the head, Johnny retched up another heap of steaming hot bile.

* * *

The next bullet that they fired must have shattered one of the car's windows, as Jerry felt fragments of broken glass fall and cut his face as he reloaded his revolver. He span the clip and jumped from his cover to fire another sequence of bullets at the bandits, who were cowering behind their truck. As Jerry offered them covering fire, Tommy, Jackson and the others returned to their jeeps. The first group had already driven far away from the scene of battle when Jerry joined Tommy and the two other Crawford men in the second jeep. Tommy slammed his foot down on the accelerator, and followed them back to base. Jerry could still feel and hear the bandits' bullet whiz past them. _They're wasting ammo_, Jerry thought until one of the bullets hit and smashed the jeep's rear view mirror. "Drive faster," Jerry then instructed Tommy with urgency. He turned back to the truck and fired another six bullets at the bandits, whose heads he occasionally saw peep over the truck's roof. None of them hit their targets, but Jerry could only hope that it would scare them enough not to follow them. Jerry hadn't asked for any of this, but the bandits had been giving them trouble ever since Jerry and his group first started scavenging for supplies in the area around their town. Their leader had ordered they bring back the head of anyone who dared enter their territory. And after meeting Jason Quesada himself, Jerry understood why the bandits were so quick to follow their leader's orders. It was another Oberson situation, meaning Jerry knew what had to be done if they ever wanted to remove the bandits from their long list of problems. For now though, Jerry had to focus on getting his men back home. He had promised these men a better life outside Crawford's walls, and so far, that was a promise he'd failed to keep true to.

And then, Jerry's eyes were back on the road as Tommy's began to tap him on the shoulder in sudden alarm. "Oh shit," he cursed quietly. "What do we do?" he asked Jerry, the panic audible in his voice. At first, Jerry couldn't make out the shapes. A gust of wind blew dirt in their faces and created a wall of dust and grime that clouded their vision. But when the storm had passed, and the dust had settled, Jerry could make out two – perhaps three black trucks forming a road block up ahead. Outside each truck stood at least three men, all armed to the teeth. The jeep before them slowly came to a halt, and Tommy put his foot on the brakes. The jeep came to a screeching halt behind the first, and Jerry's heart sank as he saw Jason Quesada, leader of the bandits, emerge from one of the black vans, a bloody axe in his hand, and his cold, tormenting eyes fixated on Jerry.

* * *

**Next time on ****_The Walking Dead_****: The group finally arrive at a new location where Lilly believes they can survive, but is it as safe from the walkers as she hopes? Christa confronts Omid over a secret he's been keeping from her, and the rest of the group begin to worry about Johnny after his behavior of late. Meanwhile, Jason Quesada and his group of bandits confront Jerry and his men, who have trespassed in their territory, neglecting their agreement. Now, Jerry must face the consequences.**

**Episode Three has begun! Hope you all enjoyed this first chapter! Chapter Two is ready to be uploaded, so get typing some reviews! :)**

**-George **


	20. Episode III - Chapter Two

The Walking Dead: Season Two

Episode Three: Behind Closed Doors

Chapter Two: R.A.F.B.

**Previously on ****_The Walking Dead_****: After leaving Savannah behind them, the group of survivors, now joined by Molly and Todd, head in a new direction suggested by Lilly, who believes she has found the perfect place for them to live in safety from the ever-present threat of the walkers. However, on their way, Johnny struggles to cope with the loss of Alex, and almost allows himself to be bitten by a walker, causing the group to become evermore concerned about his stability. Also, Omid hides a dangerous addiction from Christa. Meanwhile, after leaving Crawford ans assembling a new group of survivors, Jerry leads a group as they forage the wastes for food and supplies, but they soon encounter Jason Quesada and his sinister group of bandits, all of whom are out for blood.**

* * *

When he swung the RV's door open, Omid was almost blinded by the bright morning sun. He stepped out of the RV, taking each step one at a time, and walked with Lilly and Christa to the front gates of the Air Force Base. As he walked, Omid spotted a sign that was almost buried in the ground. He pulled the metal sign out of the dirt and read the large white text in the middle of the signs' green box. ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, the sign read. Omid discarded the sign and caught up to Lilly and Christa. The fence stood at least ten feet high, and ran on for perhaps a mile. Together, Omid and Christa swung the gates open, creating a gap in the fence wide enough to fit through five RVs. They stood back as Coach hurriedly drove the RV through the gates, the tires spitting dirt in their faces. That was when Omid noticed Clementine stood beside him, whom he had asked to remain in the RV. "Sorry," she said, shrugging her shoulders, when she noticed Omid's surprise. He wanted to tell her that she should have done as he asked, but he couldn't help but grin at the little girl. He knew he would have done the same in her position. The four of them followed the RV onto the base, swinging the gates closed behind them. They saw Coach park the RV in front of one of the base's two neighbouring hangars, both standing no less than fifty feet tall. Omid also spotted two small cabins close to the hangars. They looked like barracks. A men's and a women's perhaps? They followed the RV's tire treads to where Coach had set it carefully outside the giant hangar. The group were making their way out of the RV one by one. Omid saw Alice exit the vehicle carefully and step aside to let past the next person. Omid watched excitedly but also warily as Donald stepped out of the RV, manoeuvring himself down each step carefully and cautiously with his newfound crutches.

The entire group cheered when Donald stepped off the RV, easing himself to the ground and showing surprising skill with the pair of crutches. Omid even noticed Tom pat Donald on the back and offer words of congratulations. Alice hugged her husband so hard and suddenly he almost dropped his crutches and lost his balance. Omid thought he even saw Johnny smile as he watched from the RV's open door, keeping out of sight of the group. Omid hooted and applauded at Donald's achievement and Clementine did the same. It had been a while since the group had had anything worth cheering over. Omid looked at the excitement buzzing around him, and could hardly believe how happy the group were. Even after everything that had happened to them, they were still capable of showing their support for each other and cheering their friends on. It was like the world had never ended. _Lee would have liked this_, Omid thought to himself as he and Christa held hands. Seeing the group like this really gave him hope. Hope that, one day, they would no longer have to live in fear of the monsters that lurked outside their walls. Then, Lilly stepped forwards, he rifle in her hands.

"Now I know how excited you all must be by the idea of a bed to yourselves tonight," Lilly explained. She was right. The group had long grown tired of piling into that RV to sleep at night where the privilege of privacy was non-existent. "But before we start deciding where we're going to sleep at night, we need to make this place safe." Omid agreed. Just looking around him he could count at least a dozen walkers wandering aimlessly and non-threateningly, though it didn't look like their sudden arrival had even registered with the base's undead residents. "We need to check out the hangars and the barracks for walkers and clear out the lurkers around the base. So… any volunteers?"

"Me and Christa will check out one of the barracks," Omid decided, raising his arm in the air to grab Lilly's attention and the attention of the rest of the group. Now that his leg was better, it was about time he contributed something to the group.

"And we'll take a look around the one next-door," Molly said from behind Lilly. Her and Todd nodded at each other as they agreed on their plan.

"Okay. Good," Lilly said from the centre of the crowd. "I'm still gonna need some people to help me search these hangars too." She signalled to the two enormous hangars behind the RV. Omid still gaped at their wondrous size.

"I'll give you a hand," Coach said in a low, booming voice from behind Lilly. Omid saw him sat on the steps of the RV behind her loading a pistol.

"Me too!" Clementine offered enthusiastically as she stepped out of the crowd. Omid was about to stop her, but Christa shook her head. Surprisingly, Christa agreed with Clementine's suggestion. It seemed she'd decided that Clementine would have to learn one to handle herself around the walkers eventually, and if she was it should be from the right person. And that person was Lilly.

"Well alright," Lilly said as Clementine joined her side. "Johnny. Tom. You two can start unpacking our supplies. What we've got left anyway." Lilly looked around at the group of survivors around her. She was proud to call them her friends. "Let's get started."

* * *

The door to the men's barracks opened with a long and pitiful creak. Omid stepped inside, pistol in hand, and scanned the room. His eyes were instantly drawn to the room's beds, of which there were a dozen. The beds had been left unmade, the covers lying on the floor along with discarded clothing such as shirts and jeans. Whoever had lived here before had left in a hurry. Omid just hoped they weren't planning on returning anytime soon. Before Christ had even shut the door behind her, Omid had jumped on one the beds to test its softness. He sat lazily on the bed resting his head in his arms as though he was about to drift off to sleep when Christa approached him, her arms crossed impatiently. Omid realised she was angry. "Hey, how about we push a couple of these beds together and get some rest, if you know what I mean," he said with a cringe-worthy wink.

_Smooth_, Christa thought sarcastically. "Get up, Omid," she said as she rolled her eyes.

"C'mon, Christa," he whined as he jumped off the bed. "I'm just fooling around. I just can't believe our luck. This place is great! Can you believe we found it?" He asked excitedly. Then he noticed Christa beginning to tear up. "What's wrong, honey?" He asked her, concerned.

"You're a liar," she told him as she fought back tears. "That's what's wrong."

"What?" Omid asked her, taken aback by her out-of-the-blue accusation.

"Don't think I can't smell it on your breathe." His heart dropped - he knew exactly what she was talking about now. "Dammit, Omid. This has never been a problem. Why now?"

"Are you fucking serious?" He asked Christa with contempt. His language was enough of a shock to Christa to make her step back slightly. Omid's face had dropped. Christa now saw that long, tried, disheartened look he wore. A look he'd been hiding for a while. "Every person I've met in the last six months has ended up dead. Lee, Ben, Kenny, Chuck, Donna, Lisa, Alex – all dead. I can't shake someone's hand without wondering if they'll even still be alive by the end of the week. Sometimes, I look around and wonder who'll be the next to go. Then I look at you…" Christa could see tears in Omid's eyes now too. He began to choke up as he spoke. "I look at you – and Clementine – and I worry that I can't protect you. After all, I couldn't protect anybody else. I couldn't even protect myself," he remarked as he looked down at his still swollen leg. "If I can't protect you, then I can't protect our child either. I mean, Christ, even if I do get to see our child grow up, it won't even know how things used to be. All it will know is how the world is now, and what it's turned us into. What kind of a future is that? Sometimes I wonder if we're doing the wrong thing by even bringing a child into this world. And, God, Clementine. She's lost everything –everyone she ever knew. And yet, she still finds some way of getting out of bed every morning. And I have to wonder how the hell she does it. I'm sorry, Christa. I just don't think I can do this anymore."

Christa slapped him. "Don't _ever_ say that," she told him. "And don't you dare think you're the only one who's lost something. You think this is easy – for anyone? Well, it's not." She wiped her tears away. "What if you gave up on me? Huh? What if you gave up on _us_?" She held her belly as Omid rubbed his red, stinging cheek.

"I'm sorry," he told her, tears running down his red cheeks. "I just couldn't ever bear to lose you, or Clementine," he told her as he wrapped his arms around Christa.

"Don't worry," she told him. "We're not going anywhere."

* * *

The door to the women's barracks was already open, Todd could see as he climbed the cabin's wooden steps. He slipped inside with Molly following behind him holding Hilda high above her head, ready to sink the ice tool into the skull of any walker that crept up on them. The blood trail led from the door all the way across the room and through the door to what looked like the bathroom. Todd crept towards the bathroom. The door was ajar, and Todd could just about make out a shadow on the bathroom wall. The shadow was short, like a child or a small house pet. The floorboards creaked beneath Todd's feet as he moved across the room. The next floorboard creaked the loudest, and the sound must have been heard by the bathroom's occupant, as Todd saw the shadow's head turn sharply at sound of the loud creak. "Here it comes," Molly whispered behind him, still holding Hilda up high. Then, Todd saw two hands reach out from the doorway, pulling against the floorboards. The walker's groans echoed across the room as the undead creature showed its face, still pulling itself out of the bathroom. Now, Todd could see that the walker was legless. It had pulled itself out of the bathroom and was making its way slowly towards the two of them, leaving a bloody trail in its wake. "I'll handle this," Molly told him, realising the threat of being bitten was low. She marched towards the walker. It reached out to Molly, clawing at thin air. Then, the ice tool came down hard on the walker's cranium, caving in its skull in a gory explosion of red flesh and white bone. She pulled the ice tool free from the walker's head and returned to Todd's side, now covered in blood. "Well, at least now we're alone."

"Yeah," Todd said, smiling back at Molly. He looked around him. The beds were in a good state, although some we're messing sheets. Some of the beds were even missing their mattresses, leaving only the skeleton of the piece of furniture. But, given the fairly small size of the group, this would do just fine. It was just a shame the beds were all singles.

"It's a shame these are all single beds," Molly joked, as though she'd read his mind. Todd's heart raced, and he turned beat read. Her joke hadn't gone down as well as she'd hoped.

"Yeah," he agreed shyly, oblivious to the fact that he'd just repeated himself foolishly.

Then Todd saw the walker. It must have stumbled in through the open door to the cabin and was now awkwardly moving straight for Molly. It was about to make a swing for her and dig its sharp claws into her arm when Todd pushed her out of the way suddenly and swiftly. The walkers claws missed Todd's face by inches. After it made its swing, Todd tensed his muscles and threw his fist into the walkers jaw. It hurt like hell. The punch knocked a couple of teeth loose and sent the walker crashing to the floor. Todd looked beside him and saw Hilda, the ice tool that Molly must have dropped when she fell. He picked it up and before he knew it he had swung the tool down on the walkers skull and had dug Hilda's blade into the creature's head. The walker became limp and lifeless then, and the groaning stopped. He had lodged Hilda so deep into the walker's skull that, when he released his grip on the tool, it didn't move. Hilda remained buried in the walker's skull. Todd took a step back, wiped the sweat away, and took a moment to appreciate his work. When he turned to his side, Molly stood next to him looking mighty impressed by his actions. They caught each other's gaze, and within seconds their arms were wrapped around each other and their lips were pressed together in a spontaneous kiss. Molly's lips were soft and sweet, whilst Todd's were rough and dry. But Molly didn't pull back. They were stuck to each other, their lips massaging each other, for the longest few seconds of Todd's life. When they pulled away from each other, Todd planted another soft kiss on Molly's cheek. He didn't want the magical moment to ever end. He looked down and saw that they held each other's hands.

"Well, that wasn't bad," Molly said as she looked up at Todd dreamily.

"Yeah," Todd agreed before moving in for another kiss, this one just as sweet as the last.

* * *

"Well what the fuck do you know about this?" Jason Quesada asked his men sadistically as he juggled the old, worn axe in his right hand. His devilish eyes never left Jerry as he laughed with the men around him, all carrying assault rifles or SMGs. Jerry had never seen Jason lay his hands on a weapon other than the cold steel of his signature fire axe, a weapon he got a sick pleasure out of calling his own. He even gave the thing a name. "Nora," he called it. Nobody else ever laid their hands on Nora. Jerry's heart was in his throat as Jason marched towards him and his men. He wondered if any of their bullets had actually hit the bandits back during the shootout. They hadn't meant to hurt anyone – only scare them off. It had been Jerry's fault for taking his men into Jason's territory. Now, it was time to face the consequences. And Jerry knew that they weren't going to get off easy. Tonight, Nora was going to taste some fresh blood.

"Listen, Jason," Jerry heard Tommy begin another academy award-winning performance as he broke into a sincere apology, apparently on behalf of the entire group, to Jason and the bandits. Jerry rubbed his nose with his fingers as he watched Tommy's pitiful performance. One that was bound to only get them in even more trouble. "I am _so_ sorry about what happened back there," Tommy told Jason as he looked up to the bandit leader. "We just panicked is all." Tommy faked a pathetic and slightly feminine laugh in a desperate attempt to level the tension between the two groups. Right now, Jerry felt as though he was trapped between a standoff straight out of a Western, with either group ready to draw their weapons at any moment. "We never meant to hurt-"

"Now why don't we skip past all this bullshit," Jason interrupted Tommy, his face dead with seriousness. The stone cold look on Jason Quesada's white face sent chills even down Jerry's spine. Jerry witnessed all kinds of evils in his time surviving both inside and outside Crawford's walls, but something about this guy was different. Jason had no clear motivations for the things he did, the atrocities he committed – not that Jerry could see. He wasn't trying to protect his family that were already long dead. He wasn't trying to protect his group, a member of which he'd feed to the walkers every now and again. Jerry could only think that maybe the psychotic bastard got some kind of sick pleasure out of the things he did, and that haunted him more than anything. "And let's get the fuck down to business," he spat.

"Look, Jason. What happened back there was an accident," Jerry started, giving Johnny's performance a run for tis money. "We didn't mean to land ourselves in your territory. We just got a little lost. Tommy's right. When your men ambushed us, we panicked. We started shooting and got the hell out of there. But nobody was hurt, I promise you that."

"Nobody was hurt? What about my fucking feelings, Jerry? Did it never cross your mind that you shooting at my fucking men and going against my fucking word might leave me a little more than hurt? I mean, to have the nerve – no – the audacity not just to betray my trust, but to try and kill my own fucking guys? That takes some cojones, my friend," Jason laughed manically at Jerry and his men's impudence. Jerry had never thought of it that way, but he then realised what a fool he'd been. "But fuck, man, that's why I like you," he said a he broke into another crazed laughing fit with his hands on his knees. "Still, I obviously can't let you and your faggot friends get away with this shit, so you and I are gonna have to make a deal," he told Jerry, whom he'd always looked at as the leader of the small group of survivors. "I want six bodies. No more. No less. All gagged and ready at this exact spot two days from now," Jason told him. His look of deadly seriousness had returned as he gave his instructions to Jerry. "I don't care if they're men or women, but no children. They can be your own people or some small group of survivors you kidnapped for all I care – I really don't give a fuck. Just get it done," he patted Jerry on the shoulder motivationally as his list of demands finally came to end. "Also," he added suddenly, "I want them all alive. Show up with any rotten and spoiled corpses and I… Well, I won't be fucking happy, that's for sure."

"Consider it done," Jerry told him dutifully, despite knowing all too well that Jason's demands would be impossible to live up to. But a deal was a deal, and Jerry had just made one with the devil himself.

Jason nodded to one of his men who then led a group of four, all large white males clad in black leather jackets and wearing red or blue bandannas across their shaven heads. The group of four approached Jerry and his men, who raised their guns. Jerry signalled for his men to lower their weapons and didn't change his mind even when the group of four grabbed Tommy and threw him against the hood of the jeep. Tommy cried out as his head hit the jeep's metal hood with a loud CLANG that rang out for a few long seconds as the four men wrestled with Tommy and forced him to spread his hands out across the jeep's hood.

"You didn't really think I was just going to let you off with a fucking warning did you?" He asked Jerry and his group, smiling as he approached the jeep and Tommy. "Fuck! You really are stupider than you look, as if that were even possible," he said to Jerry, mocking the Sheriff's uniform he wore, including the cowboy hat on his head. The uniform had belonged to Tommy, but he was no leader. Jerry was in charge outside Crawford's walls or at least, he thought he had been. Out here, watching as Jason, axe in hand, approached Tommy who was now kicking and squealing in the bandits' clutches, Jerry felt very powerless indeed.

"I _did_ tell you not to fuck me," Jason told Jerry and his men, though Jerry felt that his was directed much more at him, "or my men." He juggled the axe in his hand again as he stood before Johnny, still wrestled against the hood of the jeep. "Here," he said as he lifted the axe high above him, "this should help you remember." He swung the axe down and, in one swift swipe, buried the axe in Tommy's forearm as the blade cut through his flesh and bone. Tommy screamed hysterically as Jason pulled the axe from his arm and his hand slid from his arm as blood spewed from the gaping wound. Tommy's hand fell to the ground as his arm leaked red liquid and Tommy continued to cry out at the excruciating, unimaginable pain. Jerry winced when Tommy held his bloody arm before him, staring at the space where his hand should have been where red liquid now bubbled and spat until Tommy finally fainted.

Jerry helped his men lift Tommy to the back of the jeep and set him down carefully in the back seat, where Phillips, in his white lab coat and doctor's scrubs, was already prepared with some medical supplies to treat Tommy with. He got to work immediately, dabbing cotton with alcohol and tearing bandages to dress Tommy with as the rest of Jerry's men piled into the two jeeps, waiting for Jason's roadblock to clear. That was, unless Jason had more to say. Jason strolled past Jerry looking mighty pleased with himself, still juggling the dripping, bloody axe in his hand. "Okay, Sheriff," he shouted. "Two days," he reminded him as he lifted up two fingers to ensure his message had sunk in. He heard Jason laugh hysterically as he piled into one of the black trucks. One by one, the black trucks that formed the roadblock began to clear out of there, and their path was finally clear. Jerry sat in the passenger seat beside the driver in the first jeep. The driver put the pedal to the metal as they got back on the road at long last. Jerry took a quick glance behind his seat, where Phillips was already wrapping Tommy's wound as he slept.

"Let's get on home," Jerry told the driver. It was about time they returned. The world outside the walls of their new home had grown even more dangerous by the rise of the sun, and Jerry wasn't necessarily thinking just about the walkers.

"Alright," the driver agreed positively. "Robins Air Force Base, here we come." Jerry sat back. Just hearing the name of somewhere they knew was safe was music to his ears. He rubbed his forehead. He was getting another headache.

* * *

**Next time on ****_The Walking Dead_****: As the group explore the Air Force Base, the survivors learn a lot about each other as some surprising secrets are revealed and some shocking revelations are made. Lilly makes a disturbing discovers, causing the group to wonder whether or not they are actually alone. Whilst Tom and Johnny are left together to work out their differences before they tear the group, as well as each other apart. Meanwhile, Jerry and his men make their way home, unaware of the strangers lurking beyond their walls.**

**Chapter Three is ready to be uploaded. Would love to hear some feedback on this chapter and this story overall from you guys so please leave some REVIEWS as I haven't heard from you guys in a while! Once I hear back from some of you guys, I'll upload Chapter Three for you to hopefully enjoy!**

**As always, thanks for reading!**

**-George**


	21. Episode III - Chapter Three

The Walking Dead: Season Two

Episode Three: Behind Closed Doors

Chapter Three: The Sheriff in Town

**Previously on ****_The Walking Dead_****: After leaving Savannah behind them, Lilly led the group of survivors to a new location where she believed they would be safe from the threat of the walkers. This was the Robins Air Force Base, where she had worked with her father before the walker outbreak. But as the group explore the Base and make it safe for them to settle down and make their new home, little do they know that Jerry and his men are on their way back there after an encounter with Jason Quesada and his group of bandits, and they are in no mood to deal with trespassers.**

* * *

"Me and Donald are gonna go for a little walk," Alice told Johnny and Tom as her husband got a head start on his crutches, straggling away from the RV. Alice waddled slowly beside her husband as the two began to circle the RV, allowing Donald to get a better handle of his crutches. They walked a few metres away from the RV, following their own footprints until they were practically strolling the route. They were out of earshot of Tom and Johnny, giving the two some privacy, and a chance to talk.

The silence hit Johnny suddenly. He wasn't sure whether he felt discomfort, fear, or an awkward mixture of both. Ideas filled his brain as to how he could break the ice. Jokes, banter and simple pleasantries that could potentially end this unbearable silence. But how could he possibly expect to make small talk with the man whose wife and daughter he'd gotten killed? A man who'd almost killed his boyfriend, and who Johnny knew wanted him dead just as badly. "So, I guess we better get these supplies unpacked, huh?" Johnny resorted to stating the obvious and clapping his hands together, as though the idea of spending the next hour unpacking with a man who detested him sounded like a good time.

Tom replied with a grunt and a nod and headed into the RV to grab the first case. Johnny stood outside the doorway until Tom returned with a hefty, black trunk that was almost as big as he was. Amazingly, Tom held the ginormous trunk himself, but by his red, puffed cheeks Johnny could tell that the man needed help. He grabbed the other end of the trunk as Tom fed it through the doorway, taking each step one at a time as he exited the RV. But Johnny's arms began to sink under the trunk's extraordinary weight, and he felt himself pull back out of fear that the truck would fall and crush his feet. The trunk hit the floor with a loud THUD and blew a curtain of dust through the air where it landed hard on the ground. Having fallen on its side, the trunk spilled open, revealing the treasures within.

"Look what you did you fucking moron!" Tom shouted at Johnny before seeing the trunk's contents. When he saw what sat inside that man-sized trunk, words finally failed Tom. "Holy…"

* * *

The second hangar was locked too. This padlock was the same make as the one used on the first hangar, and had been locked up just as tightly. Lilly sighed when she saw it. She gave the door to the hangar a swift kick with her boot. She knew it would be no good even before she lifted her foot off the ground, but it was worth a try. Sure enough, the steel door didn't even budge. The steel door rattled. When she pressed her ear against the cold steel of the door, Clementine heard the noise echo through the enormous walls of the hangar. She wondered all the more what was on the other side of that door.

"We're not getting in there," Lilly decided. "Come on," she told Coach and Clementine, ignoring how undeniably strange and suspicious it was that _both_ these hangars had been locked up so securely. Clementine couldn't help but wonder if there was someone who didn't want them getting inside - if they owned the Air Force Base and maybe just wasn't home. Then Clementine wondered what would happen if and when they finally came home.

"So, what do you make of all that?" Coach asked as the three of them began to circle the hangar, staying close to the giant building's walls as they walked. Clementine spotted maybe half a dozen walkers, if that in the distance. They were far away enough from them for the group to walk on by safely. But all the same, Clementine found herself constantly looking over her shoulder.

"All what?" Lilly asked, knowing the answer full well. Even Clementine could see that Lilly was trying to ignore the very clear signs. They were not alone. But it seemed that Lilly had stored so much hope in this place that she looked past the problems the group now faced. Even if those problems could potentially get them all killed.

"You know," Coach told her firmly. Clementine saw that the giant of a man had stopped in his tracks. It appeared he wasn't going to move until Lilly acknowledged this problem, but instead, Lilly looked at Coach as though he had completely lost her. "You mean to tell me that you don't find it the least bit odd that these hangars are locked up tighter than an Amish chastity belt?"

Lilly didn't laugh at Coach's attempt to lighten the mood, and Clementine simply didn't fully understand the big man's joke. "Not at all," Lilly finally said. "Whoever was here obviously didn't want anyone taking anything they held dear, and understandably so. They were probably military. They could even have had vehicles, tank and who knows what else inside there. But they're gone now," she told Coach bluntly before she pushed onwards.

But Coach still didn't budge. "So what happens when they come back?"

Lilly span around on her heel and marched back towards Coach, surprised by his sudden antagonism. "They're _not_," she assured him. "I promise you that." Coach remained unconvinced. She could tell he was about to ask her how she could be so sure, so she answered his question ahead of time. "If you were these people, and you had all this," she said indicating at the safe haven around her, "would you really just throw it away?" She stepped up to Coach's toes now, dwarfed by the giant's size. "If you had all this, you'd never _choose_ to leave." Something caught Lilly's gaze from beyond the end of the hangar. "You want a word with the owners of this place? There you go," she told Coach pointing to the end of the hangar where a walker emerged from around the corner. "This place belongs to _them_ now," Lilly remarked as she pulled her rifle from her shoulders.

Clementine gasped at the sight of the walker slowly staggering in their direction. This must have been heard by Lilly, who turned to look at Clementine. She thought carefully about something, and put her rifle away. She pulled a pistol from the back of her trousers and approached Clementine as she checked how many bullets remained inside. Clementine couldn't help but step back when Lilly offered the pistol to her.

"Go ahead, Clementine," Lilly assured her. "Take it," she told her as she placed the heavy metal pistol firmly in Clem's hands. Clementine fumbled with the weapon before getting a proper grip on the pistol. She felt the weight of the gun in her hands drag her down.

"I don't know," Clementine said timidly. "I don't think I'm ready," she admitted, remembering the walker in The Marsh House, the way the gunshot had rung through her ears and rattled her skull, and the walker's face that haunted her sleep.

"You can," Lilly encouraged her, "I _know_ you can." Clementine heard Lilly step behind her and keel down to her size. "I'll cover your ears. Just take a deep breath, and squeeze the trigger whenever you're ready," she told Clem as she put her hands over her tiny ears.

Clementine raised the gun in her hands slowly as she took a deep breath. She held the weapon in both hands, the steel of the pistol was a cold bite on her hands. With one eye, she aimed down the barrel of the pistol. She breathed out, and pulled the trigger. The gun crackled and an explosion occurred before her very eyes as the bullet zipped through one of the walker's kneecaps in a small burst of red that sent the walker tumbling to the ground.

* * *

"You know," Tom said in a hoarse, drunk sounding voice before taking yet another swig from the, now half-empty, bottle of gin, "I don't know who put that bitch in charge. What makes her think she can just boss us around like that?" Tom asked before burping comically.

"C'mon, man," Johnny replied in a laidback tone, his eyes bouncing from side to side clumsily, "she's alright." He grabbed another bottle, this one being a small bottle of whiskey, and puled the cap off before taking a good, long swig from the bottle, leaving a bitter aftertaste in Johnny's mouth as the alcohol slowly burned his taste buds. "Besides, I don't see anybody else steeping up to lead this nightmare of a group. And, she did find this place. I'm happy to have her," Johnny decided there and then before taking another long gulp.

"Oh yeah?" Tom asked him, grinning. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you have a thing for her," Tom remarked in between gulps of gin.

"Well, you _do_ know better," Johnny told him, confused that Tom would even think that, knowing what he knew. "I mean, I would say we're just friends, but I'm not sure I could even say that. She thinks I'm a liability." This made Tom chuckle aloud.

"No shit," Tom said, still laughing. "And she may be right."

"Whatever," Johnny replied tiredly. "Anyway, she's not exactly my type, if you know what I'm talking about," Johnny told him. "And even if she was, Alex hasn't even been out of my life for two whole days yet. I still think about him all the time." There was a long pause.

Johnny bowed his head. "Yeah," Tom finally said, breaking the silence despite having very little to say. "I'm sorry about Alex, by the way. I should have said so much sooner."

"Yeah, you should have," Johnny replied bluntly, though he could scarcely believe that he was hearing this from Tom. "You also shouldn't have tried to kill him either."

"I'm sorry Johnny," Tom said with genuine remorse, his voice breaking up with actual emotion. "About Alex… About everything," he told Johnny sincerely, his head buried in his hands in shame.

Johnny set the bottle of whiskey aside. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. Was this actually an apology from Tom; the man who had tried to kill him and his boyfriend on several occasions and had in general hated both their guts? Did he really look and sound like he was about to cry? Johnny pinched himself when he saw Tom wipe tears from his eyes. The man must have been blind drunk. But something in his voice made Tom sound as though his words were genuine. That he'd been keeping these feelings bottled up for the longest time, and was finally letting the chips fall where they may by admitting to Johnny that he really did care, and that the macho, bully he appeared to be was all simply an act.

"Hey," Johnny muttered, putting a hand on Tom's shoulder as the man sniffled and wiped fresh tears from his cheeks, a sight that was still alien to Johnny. "It's okay. What happened wasn't your fault," Johnny assured him, thinking carefully as he did so. "It was _my_ fault," Johnny decided, provoking a confused reaction from Tom. "I couldn't protect him," he admitted as he broke into tears too. "Donna, Lisa, Alex; they all died because of me."

"No… it wasn't," Tom told him, though Johnny assumed he was just trying to be polite – although even that would have been a first for Tom, who had been quick to blame Johnny and Alex for their deaths before. He'd almost beaten Alex senseless for what they did.

"What are you talking about? Of course it was," Johnny told him with certainty. "We – no – _I_ got them _both_ killed. I never should have involved Alex. Not ever. It was selfish of me," Johnny confessed, tears now running down both his cheeks helplessly. "And now… Alex is dead, and I'm alone. I'm surprised Lilly let me stay after all the shit I've pulled. I mean, Jesus, Tom, I can't even begin to imagine how much you must want me dead," Johnny told him. It was the drink talking, but everything he said was true, and Johnny didn't fight it. "You should just kill me - get it over with," he said coldly. "I've got nothing left to lose, after all."

"Shut the fuck up, Johnny," Tom said. "Just shut the fuck up." He took another long gulp.

"What?" Johnny asked him, confused and surprised by the sudden shift in Tom's emotions. "Fuck you, man!" Johnny cried. He pulled a pistol from his trousers and checked its bullet count. After seeing that the pistol still held five bullets, Johnny placed the gun firmly in Tom's hand. When Tom's grip tightened around the pistol. Johnny grabbed his arm and placed the barrel of the gun hard against his forehead. The gun was pressed right between his eyes, but Tom's grip on the pistol was loose. Johnny saw that his head was still bowed, and the man was still fighting back tears. Johnny clicked the gun, waiting for Tom to pull the trigger. But he never did. "C'mon," Johnny provoked him. "I know you want to. You wanted to leave me to die back in Savannah. If you want me dead, at least kill me yourself." But Tom was silent. "C'mon! Don't you want to kill the man who murdered your wife and daughter?"

"But you didn't kill them," Tom said. He took a long pause before finally lifting his head and looking Johnny in the eye. "I did."

* * *

A loud CRUNCH echoed through Clementine's ears, making her squirm, as the walker's skull collapsed under the weight of Lilly's steel toes as she crushed the walker's head with her boots. She noticed Coach cringe as the walker's head exploded in a bloody mess of flesh and bones. Lilly shook the blood from her foot, and signalled for them to keep moving. She had already taken her pistol back from Clem, whom she told had done well in taking the walker down.

"You did good, Clem," Lilly told Clementine. "That's what I like to see," she praised Clementine enthusiastically as she kicked the walker in the leg, indicating where Clementine had shot the walker right in the kneecap, sending it to the ground. "If you can't get a lock on their head, aim for places like the kneecaps and you'll knock the fuckers right off their feet."

Clementine's head was still bowed. "Swear," she muttered under her breath. _Lee would have been angry if I'd have let that one go_, she thought.

"Lee must have taught you well," Lilly said kindly. Clementine finally looked up at her and smiled upon hearing Lee's name. She began to wonder how things would have turned out if he were still alive. Would all those people still have died? Would they still be at the hilltop?

"Yeah," Clementine agreed, remembering the day on the train when Lee had first trained her to use a gun safely. Not a day went past when Clementine didn't think about Lee. Everyone she'd ever cared about – Lee, Mark, Carley and Doug, Duck, Katjaa, Kenny and Ben, her parents – all had lost their lives in their struggle against the walking dead. Clementine wondered who would be next. Johnny? Donald? Lilly? She had survived out on her own for months, but that never seemed to stop the walkers before. "I miss him."

"Me too, Clem," Lilly said, to her surprise. Lee had never forgiven Lilly for what she'd done, and she knew it. And yet, for some reason, Lilly still wished he was here.

"I know he hurt some people," Clementine said as the group continued to circle around the hangar. "But they were bad people. And he did it to protect me, and everyone he knew!" Clementine then remembered the terrible crime Lee had admitted to committing. He had murdered another man. It hadn't been a walker, or someone he's killed in self-defence. Lee had murdered this man in cold blood. But not a single member of the group could have hated Lee for his crime as much as Lee could hate himself. He couldn't have regretted it any more than he already did, and Clementine knew that. But, if Lee hadn't have been in the back of that police car when the outbreak began, he may never have met Clementine. If he knew that, would he have regretted it so much after all? The question was still on Clementine's mind when she said: "He did kill one innocent man." Lilly had known from the start, but she'd always kept her mouth shut, and Lee had always respected her for it. The man Lee had killed was innocent, although she used that term loosely, but Lee had hated himself for what he'd done. "But he wouldn't do it again!" She thought long and hard about the words she said next. "Sometimes… People get mad when they're scared."

"Sometimes," Lilly said, "yeah they do." She knew so all too well. She remembered that night on the road like it was yesterday; when Lee and the group had been forced out of the Motor Inn on account of the nearby bandits. She hadn't spoken to anyone about that night. Clementine was, in fact, the only living person who knew. Even Christa and Omid were ignorant to her crime, and she could only hope things would stay that way. Noticing Coach had fallen behind them both, Lilly was about to finally speak of the events that transpired that night on the road, seconds after Kenny had pulled the walker from the tires of the RV. Uncertain of where to start, Lilly decided that she couldn't go too wrong by simply apologising to Clem. No child her age should had to have seen something like that, even if the world _had_ ended out there. "Clementine, I-"

The words were hanging on her tongue, waiting to be said. Lilly was about to finally spit them out when she saw Johnny and Tom in the distance. Seeing Johnny and Tom in each other's faces like that, she assumed the two must have been fighting again, and her heart began to race as she choked on her words. Then, she saw that Tom in fact had a gun pointed at Johnny's head, and her heart stopped.

* * *

Even as it rattled in Tom's shaking hands as the man blubbered uncontrollably, Johnny held the pistol firmly to his head. He wanted so much for Tom to just pull the trigger, but he couldn't help but wonder what Tom's words had meant. "But you didn't kill them. I did," Tom had said instead of grabbing the opportunity and putting a bullet between Johnny's eyes there and then. Johnny had so many questions - he didn't know where to begin.

"What?" Johnny asked. It was a simple question, and about time for Tom to explain himself.

A long pause followed. Tom lowered the gun that Johnny had pressed against his head, his fingers slipping off the metal one by one. Johnny stood over Tom as the man struggled to find a place to to start. There was so much that needed to be said. Tom took a deep breath before finally delving into the story. "She was bitten. Lisa," he admitted. He sighed deeply and rubbed his nose with his fingers as he fought off an oncoming migraine. "I took her out in the woods one day. It was the day before Omid and Christa returned with Clementine. I was hunting when… I never saw the walker," Tom began to choke on his own words. He took another deep breath before continuing. "When we got back, I showed the bite to Donna, but nobody else. She damned me to hell for putting her in danger like that. I didn't tell anybody else, was too damn ashamed," he shook his head in grief and cursed himself as he recalled all the mistake he'd made. "I should have realised how many people I was putting in danger just by having her there. I didn't realised until it was too late – until Donna was bitten too," he bowed his head again as he prayed silently. He missed his wife and daughter so much it would have pained Johnny just to see, but he couldn't stop himself from hating Tom as much as he did right now. "I let you and your boyfriend think you got them both killed, because I couldn't bear to face what I'd done. And for that, I'm sorry."

Johnny snatched the pistol out of Tom's hands and pressed it against his skull in one quick effort, but Tom didn't even flinch. He must have known this was coming. What other kind of outcome could he have possible expected? Johnny wasn't sure whether the alcohol had made Tom accidentally come clean, or whether the guilt had been crushing him so much that he was finally driven to confess. Either way, the truth was out. This wasn't going to have a happy ending.

"_You're sorry_?" Johnny said back to him, wondering if Tom had expected all to be well with a simple apology. He pressed the gun stronger against Tom's forehead, his finger tight on the trigger. "Alex died thinking he'd gotten your entire family killed," he screamed at Tom, "and all you have to say is "I'm sorry"?" He smashed the butt of the gun against Tom's nose and sent him tumbling to the ground. Blood squirted from Tom's face as he fell into the dirt.

"Johnny!" Lilly shouted from one of the hangars where her, Clementine and Coach had been investigating. "What the fuck are you doing?" She marched towards the two of them.

"This fucker," Johnny said. Tom sat up, wiping his bloody nose with his sleeve. He spat out a mouthful of blood when Johnny pressed the gun back against his head. "This fucker blamed me for everything! But it was all _his_ fault!" He spat the words out as he stared coldly into Tom's eyes. "All of it!" He turned to see a terrified Clementine and an unsettled Coach.

"What are you talking about?" Lilly asked, holding her pistol with both hands but keeping it low as not to panic Johnny and cause him to do something she thought he'd regret. "Put the gun down, Johnny," she told him calmly. But it was useless.

"No," Johnny told her firmly. "Not until this fucker's paid for what he did!"

"What did he do, Johnny?" Lilly asked him. The entire group was here now. Molly and Todd had returned from the barracks, as had Omid and Christa. All of them had had their hearts in their throats since they'd first seen Johnny with his gun to Tom's head. "Tell us."

Johnny lowered the pistol and took a deep breath as he gathered his thoughts. "Back at the Hilltop, me and Alex came up with a plan to kill Tom. We tried to feed him some meat we thought was infected – a walker had dug its fangs into it, so we thought it would do the trick." Johnny rubbed his forehead as the story reached its toughest part. "But, there was a mix up. Lisa ended up eating the meat," Johnny explained. Although the group had known about this incident since Tom had blurted out everything on the way to Savannah, they had never heard the story from Johnny's perspective, and it was about time they did. "When she got ill, we assumed it was our fault. And when Lisa died, we blamed ourselves," Johnny bowed his head. He hoped the words he was about to say would change everything. "But it wasn't our fault. Why don't _you_ tell them Tom?"

Tom looked at Johnny, then to the crowd that had gathered, and then back at Johnny. He was putting on quite the show. But it was about time the group heard this. Tom wouldn't be able to ever live with himself otherwise. That was, if Johnny even let him live after this. "Lisa was bitten," he admitted after a long sigh. "She got bit, and I didn't tell anyone. What Johnny and Alex did, I used it to cover up what really happened. What really killed her. My stupidity," he explained. He couldn't look a single one of them in the eye. But when Johnny looked around him, he saw Todd and Molly looking at Tom with disgust as they held each other's hands. Christa had turned away, she began to cry when she remembered little Lisa and the way she'd ran around the camp so happy before what happened happened, but Omid never took his hateful eyes off Tom. Lilly simply looked disappointed in Tom, and so did Coach. Both had trusted Tom at one point, and now they felt like fools for ever doing so. "I should never have taken her back to camp. I put you all in danger by doing that."

"This son of a bitch let Alex die thinking that he'd gotten an entire family torn apart," Johnny explained. To the group before turning back to Tom. He stared deep into Tom's eyes with hate. "So' I'm gonna make sure you die knowing how much I hate you for that," he told him.

"No!" Clementine screamed from behind the crowd. They shuffled aside, allowing Johnny to see the little girl who'd interrupted him, and for Tom to see the person who'd just saved his life. Everyone's eyes were on her now. "I thought Tom was our friend?" She asked, confused. They weren't supposed to do this to friends, or _anyone_ for that matter. Guns were for walkers, not human beings, surely? Everyone in the crowd bowed their heads. Tom had once been their friend, but here they were about to let him die.

"She right," Omid said from beside her. "Don't do this, Johnny," he encouraged him.

"Don't make this worse," Lilly said in agreement, her hands still tight around her gun.

Johnny looked around him at the faces that encouraged him to drop his weapon and walk away. He turned to see Clementine. At first, she had been afraid. But now she gave him a look that begged him to stop. Not because of how wrong this was, but because Clementine knew that, if this happened, nothing would be the same again. Not for Johnny. Not for anyone. Clementine had come to love Johnny like a brother, and here he was about to make the biggest mistake of his life. "I'm sorry," Johnny said. No one, not even him, could have been sure whether his apology had been aimed at Clementine, Omid, Lilly, Tom, Alex or everybody there. In the end, it hadn't really mattered. He aimed the pistol before Tom's chest.

"Johnny…" Tom began to say as he watched Johnny's grip tighten on the 9mm pistol. He was about to tell him how sorry he was, for everything. How sorry he was that things had turned out this way. How sorry he was that he hadn't told him and Alex the truth before it had been too late. He had said it before, but he knew he wouldn't be able to say it enough in one lifetime for it to even matter. He opened his mouth to speak when Johnny's finger squeezed the trigger, and Tom's thoughts faded into nothingness.

* * *

Clementine watched Tom's body fall limp and lifeless to the ground, blowing a curtain of dust through the air as Johnny lowered the smoking gun. He dropped the pistol and took a few steps back. His hands were shaking and he was sweating furiously. He looked at the shocked and distraught faces around him. He saw Christa, who had buried her face in Omid arms as she wept. Omid gave him a look of anger as he shook his head disappointedly. The others gave him similar looks, except for Clementine, who couldn't even bear to make eye contact with him. He disappeared inside the RV when he saw Donald and Alice approaching the crowd slowly. Johnny slammed the door to the RV behind him.

"What the hell happened?" Donald asked when he saw Tom's body. His first thought had been that Tom had suffered another heart attack, only this one had been fatal. But then Donald saw the bloody hole in Tom's chest where Johnny's bullet had burst through, leaving behind a dilapidated mess of a corpse covered in blood and flesh.

"Get inside, Donald," Alice told her husband, tired out from testing out his new crutches profusely. "'I'll tell them." The group waited until Donald had joined Johnny inside the RV before asking Alice what had happened, even though Alice still had plenty of questions to ask the group herself. The mere sight of Tom's blood-spattered corpse gave her chills.

"Tell us what?" Omid finally asked when Donald had shut the RV door behind him.

"We saw a car," Alice explained, trying to remain as calm as she could. "Someone's coming."

The words alone made Lilly heart race. She was about to bark orders to the group when she saw something past Alice, outside the tall gates of the Air Force Base. "Oh shit," she uttered. _Coach had been right all along_, she decided when she saw the first jeep slowly approaching the gates of the base.

* * *

**Next time on ****_The Walking Dead_****: When Jerry and his men return to the Air Force Base, they are most displeased to find Clementine and her group trespassing on their turf. With his patience already long run out from his encounter with Jason Quesada and his bandits, Jerry takes extreme actions when dealing with Lilly and the group, whilst Omid does his best to help Clementine escape the Base and Jerry's men safely, but at a cost. As the group come face-to-face with Jerry, a.k.a. The Sheriff, and his group of bandits, they witness for the first time the extraordinary lengths he will go to carry on living in this world ruled by the dead.**

**Scratch another survivor! I have a feeling that a lot of people will be happy to see Tom go, but I had fun writing the character. So, Alex, Tom, who's next? Some crazy stuff is coming in the next couple of chapters as the survivors come face to face with Jerry and his men! We're almost halfway through the story! So, please leave me you're thoughts on the story so far. When I get some MORE REVIEWS, Chapter Four will be published! I can't wait for you guys to see it! So please, leave some more feedback! I would really love to hear what you guys think!**

**-George**


	22. Episode III - Chapter Four

The Walking Dead: Season Two

Episode Three: Behind Closed Doors

Chapter Four: All Hell Breaks Loose

**Previously on ****_The Walking Dead:_**** After leaving Savannah behind them, Lilly led the group to Robins Air Force Base, where she believed they would be safe. However, they soon realized that they weren't the only ones to go there in hopes of survival. Meanwhile, Tom confessed to Johnny that his daughter was bitten, and that he and Alex were not responsible for her death like he'd allowed them to believe. Angry for keeping this lie to himself, Johnny murdered Tom. Moments later. the group realized that the Base's original occupants had returned home. Now, Jerry and his men have returned, and they are not looking to share the sanctuary of the Base with strangers.**

* * *

The two jeeps were at the gate now, filling Lilly with a deep sense of dread. Their tires spat dirt behind them as they honked their horns at the two men taking their time to open the gates to the base. Suddenly, Lilly realised she had stopped in her tracks, and that the entire group were looking to her for guidance. What were they to do? Where were they to go? They didn't know, so they looked to Lilly for answers. She pulled her gaze away from the men in the jeeps and cleared her throat before barking another round of commands to the group – _her_ group. "Everyone," she shouted, the adrenaline shaking her voice. "Stand your ground. We don't know who these people are. They could be friendly." _Maybe_, she hoped.

"I know who they are," Coach claimed from behind her. "You said it yourself. Nobody would throw a place like this away. So here they are. And you can be sure as hell that, if they think we're here to take this place from them, ain't no chance they'll be friendly," he explained.

Coach's words had frightened Christa. Omid could tell that much from the way she chewed her lip as her mind seemed to be dwelling on something. Omid knew what she was going to say next, and he was not looking forward to it. Christa turned to face him.

"You need to take Clementine to the barracks," she told him earnestly. "If these people _are_ dangerous, we have to be ready." She dug out her pistol and checked the low bullet count.

"No, I'm not leaving you," Omid tried desperately to reason with her. "You take Clementine and get out of here. _I'll _stay," he said trying to sound as courageous as he could, but Christa could hear the panic and fear in his wimpy but sweet voice.

"No, Omid," Christa told him. "You should take her. They need me out here," she explained. She knew Omid didn't want her out here in her condition, but if things did get tricky, she knew her way better around a gun than he did. "Besides, we both know you're her favourite." She smiled at Omid as she held his hand. They both knew it was true.

Omid sighed, but eventually nodded his head in agreement. "Okay," he agreed before kissing Christa on the cheek and taking Clementine's hand. "C'mon, Clem," he told her, "we're going to take another look around." Omid walked away at as fast a pace as his legs would carry him.

"Who are those people?" Clementine asked, fearing the worst. "Are they bad?"

"I don't know, sweetie," he admitted to Clem. He turned around for a final look at Christa. He watched her whip her hair back as she loaded her pistol. She looked more beautiful than she ever had before. "I just don't know."

* * *

Lilly stood tall as her heart continued to beat rhythmically in her chest. Beside her, Molly, Todd, Christa and Alice stood ready to face their uninvited guests. "Alice," Lilly said sternly, "get inside the RV." But Alice didn't move, so Lilly turned to face her. "Go," she told her.

"No," Alice replied. "I'm not leaving. Not after everything we did to get here. I'm not giving up that easily. I'm staying to fight for this place. I won't let everyone who died die in vain."

Lilly was taken aback by Alice's response. The older woman stood dutifully, a revolver in her hand, ready to fight for her friends. Although Lilly admired her courage, she couldn't help but feel concerned about her being out here. She should have been with her husband, inside the RV. Although, if these people did turn out to be trouble, they wouldn't be much safer inside the RV. "I understand," she told Alice. "OK. Get ready."

"So, we're just gonna talk to them, right?" Christa asked Lilly, watching her as she pulled her rifle from the sling over her shoulders.

"That's the plan," Lilly reassured her. "What else can we do?"

"What if they ask us to leave?" Molly wondered aloud. They had come too far to leave now.

"We'll cross that bridge when and if we come to it," Lilly told her. In other words, she had no real idea. All she knew was that she would do her best to avoid making any more enemies. But her best wasn't always enough. "Here they come."

* * *

The first jeep came to a screeching halt as the shining sun bounced of the vehicle's windshield and near blinded Lilly. She shielded her eyes with her hand as she watched one of the jeep's doors swing open and a tall man in a police uniform and a cowboy hat step out of the car. Noticing the badge on his shirt, Lilly decided that, at some point, this man must have been some kind of sheriff. Whether he had claimed that honour himself or not she couldn't be sure. He rested his arm on the jeep's open door as his other hand grasped the pistol in its holster on his side. Behind him, men gathered frantically to pull something out of the back of the jeep. _Not something_, _someone_, Lilly decided when she saw three men pulling a bloody body out of the backseats of the jeep between them. Though she could hardly see past the man's blood stained clothing, Lilly _could_ see that the man was missing one of his hands. Judging by the amount of blood pouring from the man's hole in his arm, and the deeply disturbing way the man cried out for his mother, Lilly decided he must have suffered his horrendous injury fairly recently. All the same, The Sheriff showed little concern for the injured man. Instead, his focus was on Lilly. He watched her carefully as Lilly's finger tightened around the trigger of the rifle in her hands.

"You're not thinking of using that now are you?" The Sheriff asked her sarcastically. He smiled smugly as Lilly lowered her rifle slowly. _Smile now you smug bastard_, she thought.

"What do you want from us?" Lilly asked him, cutting straight to the point.

This made the man in the sheriff's uniform laugh out loud. He admired her lack of beating around the bush. "What I want," he said, "is for you to get the hell off my property."

Lilly was stunned. She could feel the tension in the air. She exchanged a worried glance with Christa. She looked petrified. "_Your_ property?" She asked back to The Sheriff.

"That's right," he confirmed with another smug look on his face. "It's been so for the past three months," he told her, giving himself a congratulatory pat on the back mentally. "We get a lot of folks like you who show up whilst we're out scavenging for supplies. You show up here – find the base abandoned with only a couple dozen walkers infesting it. You find yourself with a comfy bed, shelter and tall fences to keep the walkers out – all this, _and _you've got the place all to yourself. "It must be too good to be true!" you think. And guess what: you were right. It took us days, but we cleared this place of walkers ourselves. We think we earned the right to call this place our own. So, understandably, we're not gonna let a bunch of punks come and take our home away," The Sheriff concluded in a grave tone. Behind him, his men raised their guns to Lilly and her group, and The Sheriff smiled again.

* * *

"Keep away from the windows, Clem" Omid said as he peered out one of the small, square windows of the men's barracks. He felt his heart drop into his stomach when he saw the men point their weapons at Christa, Lilly and the others. _Get out of there, Christa_, Omid prayed, but he could clearly see that she was already trapped. The man in the sheriff's uniform had them outnumbered and outgunned. All he and Clem could do now was hide inside the barracks, but Omid knew they would find them both eventually. _Unless…_ He felt Clementine shuffle past him as she climbed high enough to peep through the window. She gasped when she saw the men with guns, and grabbed Omid's arm in alarm when she saw them point their guns in her friends faces. They watched together as Lilly got down on her knees before The Sheriff, who held his revolver to her head. Clementine had been right – these were bad people. Omid then knew what he had to do.

"What's happening, Omid?" Clementine asked in fear. Omid could tell how helpless she felt watching her friends surrender to these invaders – he felt exactly the same.

Omid scanned the room. He saw the backdoor to the barracks. "You have to go, Clementine." It broke his heart, but it needed to be said. He choked up when he said it, but he knew it was what Christa would have wanted. _We should never have come here_, he thought with regret. "You have to go right now," he told her, his voice breaking up.

"What?" Clementine asked, confused and frightened. "No! I'm not leaving you!"

"I'm so sorry, Clem," he told her truthfully. "But you have to." Omid's heart began to race, and he felt the sweat drip frantically down his face, when he saw the man approaching the barracks, his weapon drawn. "You have to go now," he implored her.

"But, I don't want to leave you," she said, fighting back tears to no avail. The tears fell down her face as the little girl whimpered. "I don't want to be alone again."

Omid went down on his knees before the girl and put his hands on her shoulders as he tried desperately to comfort her. "Listen to me, Clem," he said to her. He began to cry with her. "Me and Christa – we couldn't be happier that we met you. But we promised Lee that we'd keep you safe. We made a mistake. This place isn't safe like we'd hoped. I'm so sorry, Clem, but you have to go." He failed to fight back the tears as he said those final words.

"Come with me," Clementine begged.

"It's too late for me," he told her. "Just promise me you'll stay safe, okay? I'll find you again soon. I promise," he said to her between tears.

The door to the barracks burst open under the force of the man's boot as he charged inside the cabin. "Go! Now!" Omid shouted to Clementine. The man who charged towards them wore his hair down to his shoulders, his eyes grey and lifeless. Omid saw him raise his gun when he spotted Clementine dart across the room. Omid threw himself at the attacker, roaring as he wrestled him against the wall. He grabbed the hand in which the man held his gun and forced it against the wall until he heard the weapon drop to the floor. Omid turned around to see Clementine stood beside the open backdoor as she struggled to leave him behind. "GO!" he screamed at her as he pulled himself off the attacker. That was a mistake. The next thing Omid knew, the man had thrown himself onto him and sent him flying to the ground. Omid hit his head hard against the wooden floor. For a moment, Omid was dazed. He turned to see Clementine disappear outside the backdoor to the barracks. The attacker must have noticed this too as he left Omid to chase her. _No_, Omid thought as he picked himself up. _You'll never hurt her_. He raced after the attacker. _Not Clementine_. He had thrown himself against the man a second time and the two tumbled to the floor together. The attacker was on top of Omid now. His hands were closing around his neck. Omid threw his fist against the man's face and felt his nose crack as his knuckles hit bone. That was the first time Omid had ever hit another person. The man pulled his hands off Omid's neck to wipe his bloody nose. That was when Omid spotted the gun on the floor. The attacker must have spotted it too. He lunged towards the weapon, beating Omid to it. But Omid was on him now. He grabbed his legs and pulled the man back to him. He turned him around and sent two hard punches his way, each one spewing blood and saliva from the man's bruised mouth. He was about to pull out a knife when Omid wrung his hands around the man's neck. His hands tightened around the his neck, but not tight enough.

"What is she to you? That little girl?" the man barely managed to say as Omid continued to choke him. If he was going to die, he wanted to know why – and who Omid was protecting.

Omid had never so much as hurt a fly, but the moment someone had threatened to hurt Clementine, Omid had gone as far as to try to kill them if it meant keeping her from harm. He had made a promise to a dear friend, and it was one he intended to keep. His life had changed the moment Omid had met Clementine. He knew that, whatever happened, he would never forget her. "She's the best thing that ever happened to me," Omid confessed after a pause to the man dying in front of him. Then, Omid thought back to the wintery day he had first met Christa. A day he remembered so thoroughly as though it was yesterday. "Second best," Omid said, his thoughts now on Christa. The picture of the day he and her first met was still flowing through his mind. The snow in the trees and the breeze in the air, Omid remembered the day so vividly. He didn't see the attacker pull out his knife.

Omid hadn't noticed how much he'd loosened his grip on the attacker's neck – not until he felt the cold steel of the man's blade sink into his chest. He felt the knife before he saw it, and he felt the cold, steel bite enter his flesh before he saw the blade gleaming with white light. Omid went cold, though he could still feel the warm liquid that began to leak from the hole in his chest. As the blood began to pour from his wound onto the attacker, the man pushed Omid aside and left the barracks hurriedly. Omid might have heard him slam the door behind him if it weren't for the loud, thumping heartbeat echoing through his ears. Now, the only sound playing through his ears was the sound of the _Bay City Rollers_ – _Bye Bye Baby_. This had been the song playing when Omid and Christa had shared their first dance together, despite Omid being the abysmal dancer he was. Omid's eyes flickered as he began to bleed out. He was cold. The dark and lonely atmosphere of the isolated barracks began to fade away as Omid became drowsy, and finally closed his eyes.

When Omid awoke, he was being carried by two men. He was almost certain he was not dreaming, even when he saw one of the men possessed a stump where his right hand should have been.

* * *

"Fuck!" Johnny cursed aloud when he saw The Sheriff throw his rifle in Lilly's face, clocking her with the butt of his weapon and sending her swiftly to the ground. Unconscious, Lilly laid in the dirt, blood dribbling form her bust up lip, as The Sheriff stepped over her limp body. He backed away from the RV's window and drew the curtain before he was spotted by one of his armed men. "We have to go," he told Donald who sat on the back seat of the RV, his eyebrows raised with concern for his friends and his wife. His eyes widened.

"What?" he barked at Johnny in disbelief. Was he really suggesting they abandon everyone?

"We have to go!" Johnny repeated, this time with alarm. "Now!" He cried worryingly loud.

"We can't leave them!" Donald spat at him, shocked that he had to even say the words. "My wife is out there, God dammit!" _The coward_, Donald thought, shaking his head in confusion.

"It's too late for them," Johnny said without shame. As much as the idea of abandoning these people left him feeling mighty guilty, he still had a chance to escape, and he wasn't about to waste it. "But it's not too late for us," he said, marching to the driver's cabin.

"No," Donald said strictly as he began to fumble with his crutches. "I'm _not_ leaving."

Johnny turned to see Donald attempting to get back on his feet using his new pair of crutches. He paced towards Donald hurriedly and snatched the crutches out of the old man's hands. Donald looked at him with utter contempt. Johnny sighed and, though he felt no pleasure in doing so, walked away with the crutches, leaving Donald stuck to his seat.

Johnny placed the crutches in the passenger seat behind him and took his place in the driver's seat. When he took a brief glance out of the RV's windscreen, he locked eyes with the man in the Sheriff's uniform, who then raised his revolver in Johnny's direction.

The loud blast was followed by an explosion of glass in front of Johnny as the windshield was torn apart. Johnny felt glass fall into his lap, but the bullet must have missed him. He slammed his foot against the accelerator and drove the RV in The Sheriff's direction as he desperately reloaded his Snub Nosed. Glass slid up and down the RV's bonnet as the vehicle bounced over the bumpy terrain, racing towards The Sheriff. Finally, he looked up from his gun and, when he saw the RV driving towards him fiercely and fearlessly, leapt out of the way and into the dirt. Johnny whooped aloud, fisting the air, as he drove away from the armed men and out of the Base. Donald looked at him with disgust. _He's just left his friends - my wife – to die here_, he thought. "Turn this RV around. Right. Now," Donald ordered furiously. His eyes wide with anger and his fists curled up in stress. In the little time he'd known him, Johnny had never seen Donald so angry. In fact, he had _never_ see him angry.

"I'm sorry," Johnny said with regret. But he was alive, and he allowed himself to be happy for at least that. Besides, he may have been leaving his friends behind, but only for now. He knew he would return. He just hoped he wouldn't be too late when he did.

* * *

Clementine had almost pulled herself to the top of the fence when she heard one of the men shout. "OVER THERE!" she heard him bellow gruffly as he spotted her scaling the tall fence that must have stood no less than ten feet high. Clementine kept her eyes shut, refusing to look down. She knew the height she had climbed to would be enough to send her legs wobbly and cause her to fall back into the dirt – far enough to hurt herself more than the men ever would. She felt herself reach the peak of the fence, and once she had slowly eased herself over, she began to lower herself down the other side of it, her hands clinging onto to the hot wires of metal for dear life. "I'VE GOT HER!" Clementine heard one of the men shout moments before a gun was fired. "NO!" Clementine heard Christa shout from across the base. Her eyes still closed, Clementine did not see where the bullet had hit. Taking one hand off the fence, she felt her chest. Her heart had stopped. For a moment, she thought she had been hit. There wasn't a scratch in her. When she finally opened her eyes, Clementine spotted the man with the gun racing towards the fence. He was mere feet away now. Her heart began to race. She looked down to the ground and judged the distance between her and the dirt beneath her. Then, Clementine let go. She pushed herself off the fence and landed on her hands and feet on the rough terrain below. She looked behind her to see the man with the gun approaching the fence, breathing hard from sprinting so far. "RUN CLEMENTINE!" Christa then shouted to her. Clementine turned back. There was nowhere to go. But that didn't stop her from running away from the base, down the dirt road that had taken her there, as fast as her little legs would carry her.

* * *

**Next time on ****_The Walking Dead_****: As the group come face to face with The Sheriff and his men after being taken captive, they must face the consequences of their actions. Meanwhile, Clementine and Johnny are reunited, and must plan a way to rescue their friends. But when they encounter a couple of strangers on the road, can they trust them to help save their friends, or are they simply a new enemy in disguise? Lilly is forced to make a tough decision when she is locked away and tested by The Sheriff, pushing her to her limits.**

**Thanks all of you guys for reading as always. Can't wait to hear your thoughts on this Episode so far, so leave some REVIEWS!**

**-George**


	23. Episode III - Chapter Five

The Walking Dead: Season Two

Episode Three: Behind Closed Doors

Chapter Five

**Previously on ****_The Walking Dead_****: The group arrived at the Robins Air Force Base, where they'd hoped to find sanctuary. However, all hope seemed lost when The Sheriff and his men returned, demanding these trespassers off their property. Clementine was able to flee before being taken prisoner like the rest of the group, climbing over the fence after being given a chance to escape by Omid, who was brutally beaten in the process. Johnny was also able to flee the Base in the RV, with Donald in the back, although the old man was angry that he'd left his wife to die. Now, the remaining survivors await an uncertain fate at the hands of Jeremiah Winters a.k.a. The Sheriff.**

When Lilly awoke, the first things she felt was a scorching pain from her forehead. She remembered the thug that had clocked her with the butt of his rife, but the pain could have just as easily been the symptoms of an oncoming migraine burning in her head. She sat up. Around her, Christa and Coach had already awoken. Alice was also awake. She hid herself in the loneliest corner of the room. Coach was slamming his fist against the sealed metal door to the room endlessly, barking at the men to open it and release them. Christa, however, had buried her head in her hands, making whimpering sounds that bounced off the room's metal walls and tormented Lilly even further. Occasionally, she would pull her head out of her hands to wipe away another waterfall of tears. When Lilly searched the rest of the room with her eyes, she knew what was wrong almost immediately. Omid wasn't here. Lilly wasn't sure who she felt more sorry for. Omid, it appeared, just couldn't catch a break. His leg had only just healed and now – this happened. As for Christa, she'd lost the only constant thing in her life since corpses started walking. That was of course except for Clementine. Then, a sudden stab of panic and dread cut Lilly like a knife. She was on her feet now, searching the room for Clementine, who she hoped to see hiding in the corner with her treasured walkie-talkie. She wasn't here either. Instead, Lilly could only spot Molly and Todd, who both still slept peacefully in each other's arms. Tom and Johnny were also missing, but Lilly could not have said why. Then, that same stab of panic and dread hit Lilly once again when she saw what lay opposite them in the small, contained and sealed room that felt more like a prison cell than the armoury that she had known from her days working on the Air Force Base with her father. Tom's body lied stiff and lifeless across from her as a pool of blood began to form around it from the gaping hole in his chest. Lilly knew what had to be done next, but she sure as hell wasn't looking forward to it.

* * *

Clementine was alone again. As she walked down the dark and lonely road away from the Air Force Base, her thoughts were with Omid, who she'd hoped hadn't suffered too much pain for helping her to escape. For some reason, it had appeared the attackers had wanted Clementine captured desperately. For allowing her to escape, even Clementine knew that Omid would be made to hurt. Whether than meant a couple of broken fingers or worse, Clementine could not be sure. She only hoped he was okay. He had been one of the few things that actually brought a smile to her face these days. When she couldn't walk any further, Clementine stopped. She pulled the pistol from the back of her trousers where she had tucked it away and opened the gun to check if any bulled remained inside. Clementine counted two bullets. It appeared Lilly had taken measures to keep her safe even before they had known they were not alone. Lilly wasn't stupid – it appeared she always had a backup plan – which is probably why Clementine had stuck by her since they had first been reunited at the Hilltop. Clementine hoped Lilly was okay. She had survived this long, Clementine reassured herself that Lilly wasn't going anywhere now, and neither was Omid or anybody else. Clementine burst into tears. How could she possibly know any of her friends were still alive? She was alone. And even if her friends were alive; would she ever see any of their faces again? The questions raced through Clementine's mind as two beaming lights began to lighten the road. The circles of bright light came closer to Clementine until they nearly blinded her in the night. She heard the vehicle the headlights belonged to clutter and screech as it slowly came to a halt. Clementine's heart had stopped. If there had been a chance to hide, she was already too late. They had found her. She took a deep breath when she saw the RV's door swing open.

Clementine!" Johnny exclaimed excitedly as he jumped out of the RV, eager to be reunited with the little girl. The guilt of leaving her had made his heart sink with dread of what might have happened to her. But here she was: safe. He ran to her, his arms wide open.

"Johnny!" Clementine shouted happily as she jumped into the older boy's arms who got down on one knee to embrace and comfort the frightened child.

Johnny held her tight in his arms and did his best to keep her warm in the night's cold breeze. The girl was shaking with fear and shivering in the chilly air, but she still wrapped her arms snuggly around Johnny. "We were getting worried about you, Clem."

* * *

"Did they kill him?" Lilly asked Christa continued to weep beside her, making no attempt to wipe the tears away. She cried for Omid, and Lilly knew it would be a long time before she dried her eyes. She mourned Omid as she hid away in the lonely corner of the armoury. She wiped the tears away again when she heard Lilly's question, though she wasn't sure she could bring herself to say the words. He was gone, and he was never coming back. The idea of life without Omid, to Christa, seemed like no life at all.

"Yes," Christa finally managed to say through a voice broken by tears. "He's gone." Though Lilly had still been unconscious at the time from the robust smack The Sheriff had given her with the hard butt of his rifle, a man had entered the armoury when Christa first awoke to brag about the "twerp" he had stabbed in the barracks. Christa had given the man, called Jackson, an earful of hateful threats. The "twerp" he spoke of was undoubtedly Omid.

"I'm sorry," Lilly told her sincerely. "He was a good man. I'm glad I met him."

"So am I," Christa replied with the faintest of smiles. Even after all this time, she still remembered the day she had first met Omid. "He died protecting her, you know. Clementine. She's alive because of him," she explained as she wiped away another round of tears with the back of her sleeve. "He loved her like she was his own."

"I know," Lilly told her, her head bowed in remorse. "I could tell just by the way he looked at her. The things he did for her, you'd have believed she _was_ his daughter," Lilly almost began to smile, until she remembered what was happening. "He would have made a good Dad."

"Yeah," Christa said quietly, her thoughts still with Omid. She rubbed her pregnant belly with her hand as she felt where the unborn baby had kicked only days ago. "He would." _He died for Clem_, she thought. _He would have died for all three of us a hundred times over_.

"Guys?" Lilly heard a girl's voice from across the room ask. She turned to see Molly sat up, Todd snoozing on her shoulder. "What exactly are we gonna do about _that_?" Lilly could see she was pointing at Tom's body across the room which was still lying in a pool of wet, sticky, red blood. Lilly studied the corpse carefully. She could see it wasn't moving – for now. She sighed. What happened next couldn't be avoided, but that didn't mean she had to like it.

"Hilda," Lilly simply said in a deep and dutiful tone, calling Molly's ice tool by the name she'd absurdly given it. "Give her to me."

* * *

"I can't believe Jerry had the doctor fix this guy up," the first man said, taking most of Omid's weight as he held him slumped over his shoulder. "Way to waist the man's time. This fucker attacked me, and I defended myself." Though Omid dared open his eyes, he could feel the man's cold and deadly gaze on him. "Let him die, I say."

"Fuck, man," the one with the stump said. "This guy was only trying to protect that little girl," he defended. "Bodies, you know Jerry needs these guys. Quesada asked for _six_ bodies." Omid listened in, wondering who Quesada was, and what he wanted them for.

"Yeah, _five_ bodies," the first man confirmed. "This one, the black chick, the old lady, those couple of kids and the enormous dude with the big bald head," he counted.

_Christa, Alice, Molly, Jimmy and Coach_, Omid thought to himself. But where was Lilly? And had Clementine made it out okay? What about Donald and Johnny who had left in the RV? The questions were racing through Omid's mind when Omid felt the hard concrete floor rush up to meet him as his chin hit the floor with a loud smack. He felt blood fill his mouth having bitten through his lip. It wasn't quite as painful as being stabbed, Omid thought.

"Fuck, Tommy," the first man spat. "You just dropped the poor bastard flat on his face."

"Shit," Tommy said pathetically. "I'm sorry, Jackson," he apologised as he showed the man the bandaged stump where his missing hand was. "I can barely carry him like this," he explained, looking for pity. But Jackson simply rolled his eyes and sighed.

"Look," he said dutifully. "_I'll_ carry the guy. You just hold the fucking doors open… With your good hand," he told him sarcastically. "Still can't believe the fucker did that to you."

Jackson found himself having to double-take every time he looked where Tommy's hand _should_ have been and saw only a stump. "Yeah…" Jackson growled as he picked up Omid from under his arms and dragged him across the hangar. "All the more reason we do what he asked. So what about the brunet?" He asked, still confused about their orders.

"Jerry doesn't want to hand her over to Quesada and his bandits for some reason," Tommy explained, looking as confused as Jackson was. "He said he needs her for something."

Tommy heard Jackson chuckle childishly as he dragged Omid along. "Yeah," he said between laughing out loud. "Right." He dropped Omid to wipe a wet blanket of seat from his brow.

"What's your thinking?" Tommy questioned him, wondering what he found so funny.

"C'mon," Jackson teased him. "The Sheriff obviously has a soft spot for the chick."

Tommy shrugged as he followed Jackson and the prisoner he dragged to the armoury. All Tommy knew was that Jerry wanted the girl called Lilly because she had mentioned working at the Air Force Base with her father, meaning she might be able to help them figure out this piece of machinery they'd discovered in one of Robins' hangars. Tommy took a moment to pause and admire it. The Helicopter stood little less than eight foot high, its colour and décor in as good condition as when it was left here. Lilly may have been the key to figuring out how to pilot this thing – creating an escape for the men that they desperately needed. He put his hand on the American flag inscribed in patriotic red, white and blue paint on the Military Chopper, just above where the name "_Daisy_" had been painted in a white, feminine font. When he heard Jackson hollering, Tommy ran after him. He stopped in his tracks and sighed helplessly when he noticed his stump was bleeding through its bandages.

* * *

That bitter cold night, Johnny was woken by voices outside the RV. He sat up from the sleeping bag he had wrapped himself warmly inside on the RV's floor, where he had moved from having Donald's manky, smelly feet dangled in front of him. Clementine was still sleeping where Johnny had left her, wrapped up in his leather jacket on one of the sofas. She was fast asleep, and judging by the sounds of his ghastly snoring, so was Donald. Johnny head the voices again. They spoke in whispers, but Johnny could hear them all the same. Wearing only a pair of jogging pants, Johnny crept to the RV's door, grabbing a pistol on his way out. He raised his weapon as he pushed the door open gently. The door creaked as it swung open. Barefoot, Johnny stepped outside, the cold of the earth viciously biting at his feet. He looked around him, his gun still raised. They were alone. Or so it seemed. The sounds of a rifle clicking proved otherwise. Johnny's heart stopped.

"You alone, boy?" The man with his rifle pressed to Johnny's head asked him in a gruff and hoarse voice. Johnny stuttered. His words got caught in his throat as he saw another man step out from the darkness in front of him. "I asked you a question," he said impatiently.

"Yeah," Johnny finally managed, struggling with sudden breathlessness brought on by the two shotguns now being pointed at him. "I'm alone," he lied to both men, though his eyes were on the man stood before him. The man wore a trench coat that billowed in the night's cold wind, and a white beard coated his jaw. The trench coat was a dark shade of green, though its true colours could barely be seen through the dirt and blood that stained it.

"Bullshit," the in the trench coat uttered, his grip around the shotgun tightening.

"Quite, Harold," the man with his gun to Johnny's head told him, his finger at his mouth.

"Dammit, Dick! We're not supposed to call each other by our names!" Harold argued from in front of Johnny. Johnny could tell he was panicking. The shotgun was shaking in his hands.

"Now look what you've done! See, this is why I don't let you do the talking," Dick, the man behind Johnny, shouted at Harold, waving his finger. "I should have left you back at the Farm, you're clear not cut out for this!" He had raised his voice to a worrying volume.

"Now _you've_ just mentioned the Farm!" Harold lowered the shotgun in his hands as he began to pace in worry. He scratched his head. "_You're_ the only idiot here," he declared, pointing accusingly at Dick. The two men were in each other's faces now, and Johnny got a better look at Dick. The two men were almost identical, both in appearance and clothing.

"I never called you an idiot," Dick explained. "All I meant was…" The men broke into argument that quickly became incomprehensible to Johnny, he scratched his head in confusion and took a few steps back from the chaos erupting in front of him, as the two men shouted and screamed at each other. Johnny looked over his shoulder for walkers.

"Look, Old Jack told us to find some people to help around the farm," Dick explained to Harold. "We can't come off as psychos or people won't ever want to join us."

"Well, we can't be _too_ trusting. And we certainly can't be naïve. This guy could be one of The Sheriff's men for all we know," Harold answered back. "Or worse…"

"I wouldn't worry about that," Dick said with a smile as he put a hand on Harold's shoulder. He was about to apologies for his temper when he heard a gun click from nearby.

"Now," Johnny said, all out of patience. He held his pistol high in his hands to both men, his fingers firmly around the trigger. Donald stood behind him, balancing unevenly on his crutches. And Clementine stood beside him, clutching his arm. "You mind telling me who the fuck you people are?"

* * *

Lilly stood over Tom's cold and lifeless corpse, the ice tool called "Hilda" raised high above her head. All eyes were on her as she tried to steady her grip on Hilda, though she couldn't stop herself from shaking helplessly. At any moment, Tom would jump up and sink his teeth into her neck and kill everyone in that room. She took a deep breath. What she was about to do was unforgivable, but it was for the good of the entire group. "Do it," she heard Molly say from behind her. Lilly closed her eyes, wishing desperately that she would finally wake up from this never-ending nightmare that had started the first day she saw the dead walk. "DO IT!" Todd shouted manically from across the room. Lilly's eyes shot open. Hilda came plummeting down through the air until her blade was buried in Tom's skull. The ice tool sank deep into Tom's temple, making a loud CRUNCH sound as blood was fired across the room. She heard Alice scream and gasp behind her as Lilly pulled Hilda free, spattering blood across her face, raised her higher into the air, and threw her down again with sheer force. She pulled it free again, lifted it up and sunk the blade into Tom's skull again until there was no way of recognising him. The man's head had been reduced to a bloody, dilapidated mess. Tom's skull had been smashed to shards, and his brain was now a bloody pile of blended flesh. The man looked as though he had had a salt lick dropped on his head – an image that would forever haunt Lilly's memory. Lilly stepped back. She dropped Hilda as she raised her bloody hands to her face and began to whimper pathetically at the sight of what she had done. Christa wept beside her, though she couldn't bear to see the bloody mess that remained of Tom. Coach pulled a disgusted face as he looked ready to barf. He backed into one of the room's corners where he sat, silent and afraid. Between her feet, Lilly spotted an eyeball sat alone with its sickly red tail. Lilly stared into the eye's dark green pupils, and she felt Tom looking back. Lilly wanted to vomit. That was when the armoury door finally swung open.

Christa cringed at the sound of a loud crack as the man's chin hit the armoury floor hard after being thrown into the room by Jackson, who then saw Tom's bloody, disfigured corpse. Even Jackson appeared queasy at the sight of the bloody mess, and this was the man who had stabbed and killed her Omid. Her blood ran cold just at the sight of him. Christa felt her muscles tense. She had lost control. She felt herself get up on her feet, ready to throw herself at Jackson and claw his eyes out. But Christa stopped herself. She had seen the face of the prisoner Jackson had thrown so brutally into the room. Though his face was bruised and bloody from being so viciously manhandled, and even though one of his yes were black and his lips were cut and swollen, Christa recognised that smile anywhere. "Omid," Christa simply said as the tears already came pouring down her face.

"Christa," Omid managed through broken teeth, spitting out blood as he spoke. Omid smiled having recognised his beautiful girlfriend who, has far as he could tell, appeared unharmed. But that smile soon disappeared when he remembered who followed him. Jackson stepped over him, towards Lilly.

Jackson looked at Tom's bloody, ruined corpse, then to Lilly, and then back at the corpse. "Congratulations," he said with a manic smile. "You passed," he told Lilly, who was still shaking and felt ready to hurl at any moment.

"Wait a minute!" Christa shouted at Jackson from behind him. "This here? This was all some kind of test? All a part of some sick game?" Christa was crouched beside Omid, her hands smothering his bloody, broken face as she tried to wipe the blood and sweat away. "What the fuck do you want from us anyway?"" She asked, fighting back tears. She couldn't believe what she was saying. She was talking her way into a shallow grave.

"Who said anything about you?" Jackson turned to Christa and asked. His evil eyes turned Christa's blood cold and sent shivers down her spine. They were the eyes of a killer.

"What do you want with me?" Lilly asked him as Jackson led her out of the room, a gentle hand on her shoulder. Jackson considered telling her, but then chuckled instead.

"You'll find out, in time," he told her ambiguously. "I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise," he explained, smiling manically once again.

As the two stepped out of the room, Christa held Omid in her arms. His stab wound still healing, she felt Omid fight through a cold sweat. He squeezed her hand until it felt ready to burst. "It's okay," she whispered in his ear. But that was when Todd got up on his feet and marched towards Lilly and Jackson. Things were far from okay.

Hearing Todd's footsteps against the armoury's metal floor, Jackson took a sharp turn to see the boy stood up, his arms crossed with impatience. "Todd, sit down," Molly warned Todd with concern. But Todd didn't move. Jackson smiled and nodded at Molly, he would take core of this himself.

"There something I can help you with, son?" Jackson asked, almost sincerely, one of his eyebrows raised in questioning. _Bite your tongue, kid_, Jackson thought.

"Yeah," Todd said arrogantly, "there is." One look at Tom's corpse was enough to make Todd feel squeamish. He quickly tuned back to Jackson, though he didn't make him feel much more comfortable. "How about some answers? Huh?" Todd asked, his cockiness already rubbing Jackson the wrong way. Todd shrugged his shoulders. When he saw Jackson's lips weren't moving, he carried on with his rant. "You show up here, waving your guns in our faces. You lock us up – with a walker, I should mention! And then you waltz in here, take one of us away, and you won't even tell us why?" Todd raised his voice, and Jackson's blood boiled. "I mean, shit, if you're going to kill us, fucking do it already!"

Jackson thought carefully about Todd's words. For a moment, he looked as though he might have actually admired the kid for having the cojones to stand up and say what he said. After all, what position was he – or any of them – in to be demanding anything? Jackson must have figured the same. The man chuckled, that same maniacal smile plastered on his otherwise stone cold face. "Fair enough," Jackson said as he reached into his trousers for something. "I'll grant you this one wish." Christa's heart sank into her stomach when she saw what Jackson had drawn from his trousers. He clicked the pistol and fired it right at Todd, the gunshot near-deafening Christa, who had already covered Omid's ears. When she opened her eyes, Christa saw that the bulled had entered Todd's skull and shot out the back of his head, painting the white wall behind him a vibrant shade of red. Alice screamed again, and covered her eyes and ears, hiding herself away in that same lonely corner of the room where she had stayed this entire time. Todd stood for a few seconds, his mouth clicking incomprehensibly as blood seeped from his lips. Finally, his lifeless corpse fell limp to the floor beside Molly, who threw herself over Todd, weeping as she shook him desperately as though he could still wake up. Christa heard the armoury door slam as Jackson and Lilly left them alone again. Trapped with another corpse - one that wouldn't stay dead for long.

**Next time on ****_The Walking Dead_****: Clementine, Donald and Johnny meet Old Jack on his Farm after their encounter with Dick and Harold. There, they learn more about The Sheriff, and how he can be stopped. Back at Robins Air Force Base, Lilly confronts The Sheriff, whose mysterious agenda begins to unravel in surprising ways.**

**Are you guys still out there? Haha. Haven't heard from you guys in a long time. Would love to hear your thoughts on this episode so far. Definitely need some REVIEWS before I upload the next chapter. You could be loving it or hating it - I have no idea - so let me know! Anyway, thanks for reading as always!**

**-George**


	24. Episode III - Chapter Six

The Walking Dead: Season Two

Episode Three: Behind Closed Doors

Chapter Six: Old Jack

**Previously on ****_The Walking Dead_****: When the group arrived at the Robins Air Force Base hoping to find safety and sanctuary, they soon found themselves faced with Jeremiah Winters a.k.a. The Sheriff, who took them prisoner following the demands of a group of nearby bandits led by Jason Quesada. Clementine, Johnny and Donald were the only survivors to make it off the base. The soon ran into Dick and Harold, who claimed to be looking for people to help around a nearby farm. Back at Robins, The Sheriff demanded to speak to Lilly, and Lilly only. When Todd spoke up, demanding answers, Jackson shot him in the head, leaving the survivors with a body that would soon come back to haunt them.**

"Now," Dick said instructively as he pointed at a dirt road through the RV's windshield, "you've gotta follow this dirt road about a mile. That'll take you to the farm." He sat back in the passenger seat beside Johnny, who kept a tight grip on the steering wheel – he didn't want Dick to see that he was still shaking. He nodded as he repeated Dick's instructions in his head. Dick and Harold, who had turned out to be brothers, could have been leading them straight into a trap. But, for some reason, Donald had trusted them enough to allow them on the RV. After which, they explained a man they called "Old Jack" was looking for some extra hands around his farm. Deciding it was their safest bet, Johnny and Donald allowed the two of them to lead them back to this farm from where they came, where they would stay until they figured out their next move.

"This guy," Johnny said, his eyes on the road, "The Sheriff? What do you know about him?" He asked, remembering Dick and Harold had mentioned him earlier, when they began to suspect that the Johnny might have been working for him.

"Ah," Donald said and laughed, "_that_ guy. We had a good think going, us and him. He and his men would protect us and everyone at the Farm day and night. All he asked was for a share of the produce," Dick explained. Johnny could tell just by the regret in his voice that things hadn't stayed so tranquil for long. "But as time went on, The Sheriff became greedy. The cuts he asked for got bigger. Eventually we were handing over more than we could afford to, so Old Jack finally spoke up. That was when The Sheriff crossed the line," Dick went on, his head bowed in mourning.

"What'd he do?" Johnny asked, now looking at Dick with genuine concern.

Dick chuckled. "What _didn't_ that rat bastard do?" he asked rhetorically.

Johnny took a sharp turn in the RV. The moonlight had disappeared behind the woods' tall trees. "Do you even know the guy's name?" Johnny asked, tired of knowing him only as _The Sheriff_ – a name that made him sound more like a comic book villain from the 90s.

"Jerry," Dick said simply. "Jerry Winters. Or "Sheriff" Winters as he prefers us to call him – the sociopath gets some sick satisfaction out of it," Dick explained, shaking his head. "He was a Sheriff in a town called Crawford, down in Savannah. Apparently, he made it out of there before that town went to hell." He sighed.

"Sounds to me like he brought hell with him," Johnny remarked.

Dick smiled and patted Johnny on the shoulder. "You're not too wrong there, son."

* * *

Clementine's eyes never left Harold, who looked back at her with a wide grin planted across his old and tired face, as though it had been years since he'd seen a little girl like her. She shifted and fidgeted in her seat uncomfortably as she noticed Donald, who sat in his usual spot at the back of the RV, had fallen asleep. It was just her and this stranger now. The smiling stranger then did something odd. He covered his eyes and face with his dirty, worn-out hands, so he was blind as a bat. A few seconds passed, then Harold removed his hands from his face in a joyful manner. "Peekaboo!" He said playfully with a cheesy grin.

But Clementine was unimpressed. She could see his green, beady eyes glistening through his fat sausage-like fingers. Clementine sat, unmoved, her arms crossed, frowning. Harold's grin had disappeared. "I'm not five anymore," Clementine explained.

"How old are you?" Harold asked out of genuine interest. He leaned forward, his hand on his chin as he waited for her answer.

"I'm ten," Clementine lied through her teeth.

"Ten?" Harold asked. He raised his eyebrows in surprise. "That's pretty old," he said patronisingly as his head bounced up and down like a bobble head.

"I'm not old," Clementine insisted. "_You're_ old," she accused of Harold.

Instead of taking any offense from the harmless nine year-old girl, Harold simply chuckled at her remark. "Yeah," he said when he finally stopped laughing, "I noticed that."

"We're here," Dick said with a warm smile as Johnny finally pulled the RV out of the dark, lonesome dirt road. The Farm wasn't much on the eyes, but Johnny could tell just by looking at it that the people here had a good thing going. Looking around him, he saw Cows and Horses in stables painted red and white. He saw a house that stood proudly behind picket fences, seemingly untouched by the end of the world. He saw a husband strolling with his wife and son merrily to collect a pale of water from a well. He saw two men share a laugh together, both with a bottle of beer in their hand. If he hadn't known any better, Johnny would have thought the world hadn't ended. Sadly, Johnny _did_ know better.

A tall shadowy figure stood in the distance, his hands on his hips. Johnny could hardly see his face, but the man stood proudly before the Farm behind him. _His_ Farm. "Who is that?" Johnny asked, still struggling to see the man engulfed by the night's darkness.

"That's Old Jack," Dick told him. "He's my cousin," he explained, proud to call the man family, "and this is his farm." He turned to look at Johnny coldly. "Don't you forget that," he warned him. "You're far from home, son. So, don't go tryin' anything funny."

* * *

Old Jack gave a firm handshake. He shook Johnny's hand with enough energy to rattle the bones in the boy's body. "Welcome, son," he greeted Johnny warmly, a cheerful and hopeful smile plastered across his long, horse-like face. "It's good to see a face around here that isn't rotted to hell," Old Jack said. That was when Harold stepped out of the RV.

"Yeah," he agreed, "everyone gets sick of my brothers ugly mug eventually," he joked as he jumped out of the RV. Clementine followed, and Donald hopped out on his crutches behind.

"Actually, I was talking about the zombies," he explained, "or walkers or geeks or whatever the hell you kid call them these days." Old Jack was a tall man. He wore a pair of blue and red checkered overalls, and desert-coloured boots that upped his height by a couple of inches. He buried his dirty, worked hands deep in his pockets when he said: "The Sheriff and his boys haven't been much help when it comes to those things of late."

"Dick was just telling me about the problem you've been having with that guy," Johnny explained. "He sounds like a real nasty piece of work."

"You don't know the half of it," Old Jack remarked, unaware of how wrong he was.

"Actually, I think I do," Johnny replied. "This guy, The Sheriff, he kidnapped my friends. Sounds like he might have killed one of them. I don't know if the others are still alive, but if they are, they won't be for long. Not unless we can help them," he explained with deadly seriousness.

"Jesus," was all Old Jack could manage. "I knew the cold bastard was capable of some evil shit, but this surprises even me," he explained. The way he spoke, Johnny felt as though there was something Old Jack was keeping from him about this man "The Sheriff", but he was in no position to demand answers. "And how did you make it out alive?" Old Jack asked.

Johnny struggled to reply. What way was there of telling him that he'd simply abandoned his friends? Johnny stuttered and stumbled as he tried and failed to put the words together.

"He ran away," a hoarse voice from behind them said, loud enough to make Johnny jump like a little girl. He turned to see Donald, stood with the aid of his crutches, looking at Johnny with hateful eyes. He hopped past Old Jack and Johnny, ignoring them both. "How else do people survive in this world?" was what the old man mumbled under his breath.

* * *

"A few months ago, we here at the farm cut a deal with Jeremiah when he and his men first appeared on our doorstep," Old Jack explained to Johnny as he followed the cheery man to the front porch of his house. Clementine also walked between them, her eyes drawn to the horses and cows she saw in their stables. "He offered us protection in return for a large cut of everything we farm here."

"How large, exactly?" Johnny asked, nervous to hear Old Jack's answer.

Jack sighed. "60% of everything we farmed," he said with regret. "Though that soon went up to 75% when his numbers raised, so we had to start scavenging just to be able to pay our debts and make sure there's something left for the rest of us."

"Christ," Johnny cursed. _They're killing these people_, Johnny thought. He looked around him at the cows being milked and the crops being planted. _This is all for him_, Johnny realised. These people were working their asses off day and night just to keep this evil son of a bitch happy. "Why the hell did you agree to this?"

"Do you think I had much of a choice?" Old Jack asked him sarcastically. "He and his men showed up armed to the teeth. If I hadn't have handed over the stuff, they'd have taken it by force, but not before they killed everyone and burned this place to the ground. I couldn't let that happen to my family's farm. It's survived two World Wars, after all!"

Johnny nodded in agreement as he head the old man's reasoning. He had given up a lot to do so, but the man had protected the people he cared about for this long. It was more than could be said for him. Johnny turned to Jack. "So, do you think it could survive one more?"

* * *

"This guy, The Sheriff as he likes to be called, shows up here one day in Tank, his boys following in jeeps behind him," Dick told Donald as they sat on the porch. Dick drank from a bottle of whiskey as he told the story of The Sheriff's first appearance. "He offers us protection, but in return he wants a huge chunk of our surplus here on the farm. We said yes, like we had a choice. Since then, he and his men have mostly kept the walkers out of our hair. _Mostly_. That isn't to say our relationship hasn't had its share of ups and downs."

"What does _that_ mean?" Donald asked as Dick took a long swig from the bottle.

"Doesn't matter," Dick assured him. "But with three-quarters of the stuff we farmed gone, there was barely enough left for us to live on. So, me and my brother, Harold, we've had to start scavenging outside the Farm – searching abandoned buildings and vehicles for food and supplies. We were hoping we might have found something in your RV, had it been abandoned. But, putting ourselves out there guarantees a run in with the zombies. So, even though we're handing over almost all our food to these people for protection, we're _still_ risking getting bitten by those things out there. It's fucking ridiculous, and I've long grown tired of this asshole and his deal. We were dealt a shit hand, my friend. But, looking at your leg – or where it should be, at least – I see I'm not the only one with problems."

Donald noticed Dick was studying his stump. He looked at the bump where his leg ended and simply shrugged his shoulders, as though it was no real biggie. "Right now," he told Dick, "my only problem is that I'm here, and my wife is out there," he explained as he looked beyond the trees and towards the horizon, lit up by the light of a million stars glowing in the air like Christmas lights. "And there's nothing I can do to help her."

Dick sighed, pitying Donald. But then, he remembered what was sat in the barn, waiting. "C'mon," he told him as he jumped out of his seat and stepped off the porch. "Follow me."

"Where are we going?" Donald asked as he hopped down the steps, balancing on his crutches.

"To show you how wrong you are," Dick told him as he hurried towards the barn.

* * *

Clementine tugged at the sleeves of Johnny's black leather jacket, still dirtied and bloody from days gone by. He turned to see her stood at his feet. "Where are we going?" she asked him, whispering as she did so. Though she trusted these people, she wanted to go back and save her friends more than anything. But Johnny simply shrugged hopelessly.

Old Jack paused when the three of them reached the doors to the red and white barn. He spun around, looking excited by sharing what he was about to show them. "You asked me whether or not I believe this Farm could survive another war," Old Jack reminded Johnny. "Well, hopefully this answers your question," he told him. With both hands around the handles, Old Jack swung the double doors to the barn open, and stood back.

At first, Johnny thought his eyes must have been playing tricks on him. Had he not gotten enough sleep? Maybe he was dehydrated? But what stood before him was no hallucination. The large, green tank was quite real as it stood in that barn ready for battle. "Where the hell did you…" Johnny tried to ask, but words failed him in this moment of awe and wonder.

"It was a sort of a peace offering from The Sheriff," Old Jack explained. "He gave it to us when he started demanding more food from us, so that we could keep the crops and the animals safe," he went on. "But the man's gone too far, and has to be stopped."

Now, Old Jack looked at Johnny with deadly seriousness. Behind him, Donald and Dick had appeared. Johnny heard Donald lose his breath at the sight of the giant, green titan. Clementine felt the cold metal of the tank with her hands. She knew then that she was not dreaming. "So," Old Jack then said to Johnny. "You know how to drive a tank?"

* * *

Lilly followed Jackson as he led her across the hangar, their footsteps echoing across the vast, empty hall. She could see The Sheriff stood with another man in front of a large piece vehicle, his arms on his hips as he stood proudly before it. The Helicopter was black, though an American flag had been painted on its side, just above where the name "_Daisy_" has been painted in white. The two men turned around upon hearing their footsteps approaching them, and the man with the stump took a step back. He had been there watching when Jackson had shot Todd dead, an action that had seemingly frightened him. Her eyes met the man in the sheriff's uniform, whose name she still didn't know. But, for some reason, he wanted her, and her alone. But why? Lilly had a feeling she was about to find out.

"You," The Sheriff said firmly to Jackson, stopping him in his tracks. "Explain yourself."

"What?" Jackson asked him in honest confusion. "What are you talking about?"

"You know," The Sheriff assured him. He tilted his head at Tommy, who stood beside him. "You know damn well what I'm talking about." His cold, unforgiving eyes never left Jackson.

Then, Jackson got it. "Wait, you mean the kid?" He asked, still confused. He looked at Tommy with venom, angry that he'd come running to Jerry. "Are you talking about-"

"The kid you shot and killed? Yes. I am," The Sheriff told him, his voice deep with seriousness. "What were you thinking, Jackson?" He barked at him. He was in Jackson's face now. "You know Quesada wants _Six_ bodies. _Six_. How many prisoners do you count now that you've killed one of them?" He asked Jackson, his eyes bulging with contempt.

"Umm," Jackson stumbled pathetically as he counted the prisoners in his head, his eyes looking up to the skies for guidance. "…Six?" he finally answered after a long, painful pause.

"WRONG!" The Sheriff bellowed, scaring Jackson, Lilly and even Tommy. All three of them jumped out of their skin. "You _know_ we need Lilly alive. So, that makes five bodies. _Five_. And, in case you're an idiot, and need it spelt out for you, that's not enough. That's _one_ less than enough," Jerry told him, holding up fingers mockingly as he explained the situation.

"Fuck, Jerry. I'm sorry," Jackson said, his apology empty and meaningless.

"Yeah," Jerry said. "I'm sorry too," he told Jackson with genuine regret and remorse that Lilly could hear in his cold voice. She saw him pull a straight razor from his pants and flick the blade out of its holster, its blade glistening in the light. In one swift movement, Jerry moved the blade in one quick slash across Jackson's neck, opening his throat.

"FUCK!" Tommy cried out in shock as a surge of blood came flooding from the gaping slice in Jackson's neck that now oozed red, thick liquid. Lilly also gasped and took a step back as she watched Jackson hold his neck with both hands, trying desperately to keep the blood from seeping out of the gash in his neck. However, blood was now spurting from his wound and spraying across Jerry and Lilly. Tommy had stepped far back now. Jackson's incomprehensible cries in pain turned to mere choking sounds as the man fell to his knees. Jackson's tongue lolled in his open mouth as the man knelt agape, blood still leaking from his open throat. Eventually, he fell flat on his face. Lilly even heard his nose break as he slammed against the floor. She saw him twitch and heard him choke, but after a few seconds, the man was silent. His body lied before them, still and lifeless.

When her eyes finally left Jackson's body, Lilly looked up to see Jerry turn to Johnny, who was still staring in awe at his dead friend and the thick, red blood that was pooling around his feet. "Get back to work," Jerry told Tommy, whose eyes were still on Jackson's corpse. Though he never turned to look at Jerry, he had obviously heard his orders. The next thing Johnny did was turn around and head back towards the exit.

"Ahem," Jerry then coughed, grabbing Tommy's attention. "Aren't you forgetting something?" he asked Tommy, who had turned to face him.

Tommy looked ready to burst into tears. Lilly could clearly see the man was shaking, but now she feared that one more word from The Sheriff and the man would wet himself. Tommy looked back at Jackson's body, and nodded. He approached his corpse, grabbed under his arms, and began to drag Jackson across the hangar floor, leaving a trail of blood behind him.

* * *

**Next time on ****_The Walking Dead_****: The Sheriff explains his goals to Lilly, who begins to see Jerry as less of an enemy and more of a fellow survivor when she learns about his experiences in Crawford, and the fate of his wife and daughter. Back on Old Jack's Farm, Old Jack, having partnered up with Johnny and Clementine, plots their next move. And Clementine meets more of Old Jack's family. As the battle for Robins Air Force Base draws nearer, sides are chosen and desperate measures are taken.**

**Hope you all enjoyed this chapter update. Sorry for the delay in updating this story, Episode Four has been taking up a lot of time, so if there are any future delays, know that it's only because I'm doing my best to make Chapter Four as great as possible! Anyway, thanks you guys for reading. Please leave some REVIEWS!**

**Chapter 7 + 8 are both ready to be uploaded. When I reach 20 REVIEWS, I plan on uploading them both. Either way, Chapter 7 will be going up next week, but with your help, it can go up much sooner! So, 20 REVIEWS is the goal!**

**Also, another quick question for you guys that you could answer in a PM or REVIEW: how would you feel about another in-between story, like Tales of Crawford? It would basically be a short story (5,000 words or so?) that teases future events and introduces new characters, but fits right into the world of ****_The Walking Dead _****like Tales of Crawford [hopefully] did. I have a few ideas as to what it could involve, so just let me know whether you'd like to see it or not!**

**Anyway, sorry to keep saying it, but ****20 REVIEWS**** and the final chapters go up IMMEDIATELY! So get typing! How else can I know whether or not you're actually enjoying this stuff?**

**-George**


	25. Episode III - Chapter Seven

The Walking Dead: Season Two

Episode III: Behind Closed Doors

Chapter Seven: Campfire Song

**Previously on ****_The Walking Dead_****: Having escaped the Sheriff and his men at the Robins Air Force Base, Clementine, Johnny and Danny met Dick and Harold, who offered to take them to a nearby settlement - Old Jack's Farm. There, they met Old Jack, who explained that him and his family have also suffered a lot at the hands of The Sheriff. He explains that they're ready for payback as he shows the three of them the Tank he has hidden in his Barn. Back at Robins, Lilly comes face-to-face with The Sheriff, who showed just how dangerous he is when he slit one of his own men's throat for disobeying him. But what could he possible want from Lilly?**

"So, obviously you've met my cousins, Harold and Dick," Old Jack told Johnny from the across the campfire as he gestured to his right, where Dick and Harold sat on a tree stump. Dick sat and cleaned his gun whilst his brother began to play a soft tune on an old, acoustic guitar. "Let me introduce you to my son, Michael, his wife, Sara, and his son, Danny," he said as he gestured to his left. Michael sat on a wooden bench in-between his wife and eight year-old son. He gave Johnny a friendly and courteous nod. Sara offered Donald, who sat beside Johnny, a warm smile, one he eventually returned. Danny waved at Clementine, who sat between Johnny's feet. She waved back excitedly. In all her time out here, she'd only met one other kid her age. That was when she noticed how alike Danny and Duck looked.

"Sorry I'm late," another voice said from somewhere not too distant. Another person stepped out of the dark , his features exposed by the blaze of the campfire. He looked a little younger than Michael, and fairly similar looking. Only, his hair was blonde instead of brown, and he didn't wear glasses like Michael. He was also clean-shaven, unlike Michael who wore a 5 o'clock shadow. He sat beside Danny, hiding his hands in the sleeves of his hoodie that was two sizes too big for him.

"That's quite alright son," Old Jack reassured him. "Johnny, Donald, Clementine," he said, grabbing the trio's attention once more, "this is my son, Jimmy."

"Hi," Jimmy greeted them warmly, "I'm the _other_ son," he said awkwardly as he held out a hand to shake. He had been the first person since Old Jack to offer handshake.

"Good to meet you," Johnny told him as he shook his hand kindly. Clementine and Donald only smiled at Jimmy. His hands were soft and warm, like Alex's. "Sorry," Johnny said when he realised how long he's been holding Alex's hand for. He gave him his hand back finally, and the two giggled.

"Well," Old Jack, picking up the awkward vibe that followed, "this is it," he concluded.

"Wait," Johnny stopped for a minute, counting the heads around him. There couldn't have been more than ten people there, and that was including two children and a man who couldn't even walk. "You mean, this is everyone? There's nobody else?"

"I'm afraid not," Old Jack admitted. "But, you know, The Sheriff doesn't have that many men himself. And we have one thing they don't," he explained to Johnny, who was now lost.

"What's that?" Johnny asked, unconvinced by Old Jack's reassuring words.

"A Tank," he said nonchalantly, "and someone who can drive it."

"Don't look at me," Johnny told him. "I already told you I can't drive a tank!"

"Obviously, you don't know a joke when you hear one, son." Old Jack stood up. "As a matter of fact, I was talking about my son," he explained. That was when all eyes turned on Michael. He looked around him, flabbergasted. "Not him," Old Jack said, "my _other_ son," he explained, directing everyone's attention to Jimmy, who looked back at the group and took a loud, nervous gulp.

* * *

"I'm sorry you had to see that," Jerry apologised as he studied his reflection in the pool of blood Jackson had left behind. "It's something I had to do, but that don't make it right. And it damn well don't mean I'm proud of it," Jerry explained, his head bowed.

"Who is he?" Lilly blurted out suddenly, surprising even herself. "This… 'Quesada' guy."

"Jason Quesada," Jerry reflected. He sighed and then chuckled slightly. "He's dangerous. That's all you need to know," Jerry said coldly. He turned his back on Lilly.

"No," she told him, a little _too_ firmly. She stepped forwards. Adrenaline filled her and shook her voice. "I need to know a helluva lot more than that. Like why I'm here, for starters."

Jerry turned around. He looked almost impressed by Lilly's courage to speak up like that. "Alright," he decided. "You're here because I don't want to hand you over to Quesada with your friends. I need you for something else," he explained, his eyes never left Lilly's.

"For what?" she asked, almost scared to hear his answer.

Jerry stepped back, allowing Lilly to see the entire Chopper. The Military Helicopter was large in size and slick in colour and shape. I appeared capable of carrying at least half a dozen people, and perhaps more. But by the amount of dust the Chopper had collected, Lilly guessed it hadn't seen action in a long time. "You know how to pilot one of these, don't you?" Jerry asked, though it sounded more like a matter of fact than a question.

"I… I wouldn't know where to start…" Lilly stumbled, avoiding The Sheriff's eyes.

"DON'T!" Jerry bellowed, making Lilly jump. He calmed himself, took a deep breath, and tried again. "Don't lie to me," he told her. "I don't like liars."

Lilly's heart began to race. "I don't know that I could fix her up if she needs repairs, but I might be able to fly her, yeah," Lilly admitted, scared to even talk. "My Dad taught me."

"Your Dad, huh?" Jerry asked her. He smiled. "That's sweet," he said sadistically. "Where's your Dad now?" he asked her.

Upon remembering her father, Lilly began to tear up. She tried not to let it show, to show no weakness in front of Jerry, but he saw her wipe a tear away.

"I'm sorry," Jerry said with what sounded like genuine remorse. When he took Lilly's hand, she didn't pull away. "Although, I gotta admit, I kinda figured. The walkers get him?"

Lilly shook her head as she wiped the last tear away. Just the thought of that terrible night in the Meat Locker at the St. John's Dairy Farm sent a cold chill down her spine.

Jerry understood immediately. "I see," he said. "I lost my wife," he confessed, his head bowed in regret. "But not to the walkers, to us, people – the only _real_ monsters."

"What happened?" Lilly asked, not because she felt she had to, but because she cared.

Jerry sighed as he rubbed his throbbing head. The thought alone, Lilly could see, brought enough regret and sorrow to end the man. He squeezed her hand. "Lilly," he said looking into her eyes. "Have you ever head of a town called Crawford?"

* * *

"We can't win this war," Johnny told Old Jack with certainty from across the campfire.

"Son, who said anything about a war?" Old Jack asked. "The last thing I want is for people to start dying. It's my family we're talking about here! What do you take me for?"

_An old fool_, Johnny thought but chose to keep to himself. "So, what _is_ your plan?" he asked.

"We simply talk to the man," Old Jack said, "and we try to work something out."

Silence followed. Eventually, Johnny spoke up. "Have you not heard a word I've said? This man kidnapped my friends! For all we know, he could have killed them all by now!" he told the group, not noticing how much that hurt Clementine. The thought of anything bad happening to Omid, Christa, Molly or _anyone_ back there made her heart sink and her eyes well with tears. "There is no 'working it out' with these people, do you understand?"

"Dad," a voice said from opposite them. Michael sat between his wife and son. "I'm sorry, but he's right. This is the only way," he assured his father.

"Tell me," Johnny said to Old Jack, ignoring Michael completely, "how exactly does a Tank fit into your 'working it out' plan?" he asked sarcastically. The group went silent again.

"The Tank is there just in case things _do_ get out of hand," Old Jack explained firmly with a hint of venom in his voice. "We can't go in there guns blazing. We're civilized people!"

This made Harold laugh out loud as he continued to play _O When the Saints Go Marching In_ on his acoustic guitar. "Something funny, brother?" Dick asked from beside Harold.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Harold apologised, "I thought he was kidding about the civilised thing."

"Look, maybe it would be better if we did just try to talk to this guy," Jimmy said, being the only person on Old Jack's side. "I'm not sure I'm cut out for this anyway," he tried to say, though he could barely be heard over all of the voices speaking over each other.

"Daddy, I don't want you to go," Danny told his father as he wrapped his arms around him, desperate for him not to leave. "Please don't go."

Michael held his son tight. "I'm sorry, Danny," he told him. "I have to." He looked at the chaos that had erupted around him. He couldn't hear what Old Jack was saying anymore. Not over Johnny's protests, the argument between Harold and Dick and Jimmy's complaints.

Finally, Old Jack stood up. "SHUT UP!" he bellowed, and the group fell silent. "Look, I know you're all angry, and eager for payback. And nobody can blame us for that after what this man did to us," Old Jack bowed his head in remorse of what he'd lost at the hands of The Sheriff. "But I won't let us turn into monsters like him, like _them_," he shouted as he pointed beyond the horizon, where hundreds of walker were no doubt lurking. "These people showed up on our doorstep one morning, guns blazing, with threats to kill and destroy, and now you're talking about doing the very same!" Old Jack said, and he couldn't have been more right. "Now, everybody get some sleep. We leave at sunrise." And with that, Old Jack was gone. He left to let his words sit with the group. Silence fell upon them once again.

"Helluva group you've got here," Donald said sarcastically under his breath as he pushed himself up and hopped away on his crutches.

* * *

"They took my wife from me," Jerry confided in Lilly, "my son too." His head still bowed, Jerry closed his eyes as he thought back to days gone by. Days spent with his wife; the dreams they'd made and the love they'd shared. Days spent with Anna; woman who had once made his heart race, but now made his blood boil in furious hatred.

"Jesus," Lilly cursed. Jerry's story of Crawford and how the town's sheriff had lost everything truly shook her to her core. "I'm sorry," was all she could think to say.

"Me too," Jerry said. Jerry felt a giant weight leave his shoulders. Perhaps having told Lilly everything had actually helped. After all, the only woman in his life he would ever have dreamed of sharing such dark secrets with was gone. And he'd never spoken to anybody about hat night in Crawford. Not even Tommy or Jackson, who were both likely too scared to even bring it up. "You know, a part of me understands why Oberson did what he did," Jerry told her. He noticed Lilly's confusion. "Let me be clear: that man was a monster. But he did what he did for the good of his people. He was trying to survive. And _that's_ where he went wrong." Jerry noticed Lilly was still hopelessly confused. "Lilly, do you know why I want to fly this Chopper?" he asked her, but she only shrugged her shoulders. She watched him suspiciously as Jerry paced up and down in front of her. "I want to leave Savannah," he explained coldly. "I want to leave this place behind and never come back. Why? Because there's no hope left here. It's too late for Savannah, but not for the rest of the world. We're going to Washington. You and me," he told her. Lilly's heart raced.

"What?" she asked, hopelessly lost. Was this some kind of sick joke? "Why me?"

"Because you're a survivor. A leader. Like me," he told her. "You proved it back there," he said talking about her actions in the armoury where she had destroyed Tom's brain to prevent him from turning, saving her and the rest of the group. "You were born to lead. _We_ were born to lead. Together."

"I don't understand," Lilly said. Was he flirting with her? Or did he truly _need_ her?

"Oberson was trying to survive, and he did for a long time. Longer than a lot of people anyway. But in the end, he still ended up like all the rest: dead and walking." Lilly nodded, she was starting to see the man's point. "Sometimes I wonder: why even bother? With so much death around us, why go on? We've lost our families, wives, fathers, and yet, we carry on. _This_ is why," Jerry said, gesturing towards the Helicopter. "This is our destiny," he told her, sounding only slightly insane. "So, you and me, we go to Washington. We find ourselves a group – an army. We do what we both do best. We lead. We rebuild. We don't just survive. We start living," he said, his hands on her shoulders. "Isn't that what you want?"

_Yes_, was all Lilly could think. She wanted to shout it. _More than anything_.

* * *

The RV hummed as Johnny led it down the road out of the woods and back towards the Air Force Base, carrying Clementine, Donald, and the entirety of Old Jack's family, including the old man himself, who had insisted on a moment to speak to The Sheriff himself, believing there was enough sanity left in the man for Old Jack to talk him down. Whether he was right or not, the men were ready for battle. Clementine couldn't help but watch as Dick cleaned his rifle, her eyes following his hand as he wiped down the gun butt to barrel. Her eyes bounced up and down as they followed Dick wiping the gun from top to bottom with an old, dirtied rag. Dick's eyes caught hers, and he offered her a pitiful smile. It was more than could be expected under the circumstances – the group were essentially headed toward their doom – so Clementine gave him a smile back. Harold had fallen asleep beside Dick, his head back against the sofa's cushion, bouncing like a bobble head every time the RV hit a bump in the road. Harold's snores were the only sound to be heard that morning in the RV – the only thing breaking the silence. That was except for the odd direction Michael offered Johnny as he sat in the passenger seat beside him, directing him back to the Air Force Base through a quicker route that would get them there within a couple of hours. At the back of the RV, Old Jack had also fallen into slumber, joining his cousin in the peaceful paradise of sleep. It was almost a shame that the old man would have to wake up from whatever dream he might be dreaming to be reminded of the hell the world had become. Unlike his cousin, however, Old Jack slept silently. Sara sat beside him with young Danny wrapped up in her arms. When Danny caught eyes with Clementine, she quickly turned away out of shyness, embarrassment or an awkward mixture of both. When she turned back, she saw the boy whispering something in his mother's ear, his hand guarding his mouth and his words. Now, the boy had leapt out of his mother's arms and off his seat, and was walking towards Clementine.

"You mind if I sit here?" Danny asked, gesturing towards the empty spot besides Clementine. She shook her head, and so the boy pulled himself up to the seat next to her. He sat on his hands for a short while before opening his mouth again. "I'm sorry," he apologised, "what was your name again?" Danny asked Clementine, looking at her with his mouth open. It had obviously been a while since the boy had seen another child his own age, let alone a girl.

"Clementine," she told him with a warm and inviting smile as she twiddled her thumbs.

"Clementine?" Danny asked as he looked at her quizzically. "Like the fruit?" He asked her.

"Yeah," she agreed, nodding. "Like the fruit." They two of them giggled together, waking up Old Jack who sat nearby.

The old man wiped the sleep out of his eyes as he struggled to remember where he was. He soon recalled climbing inside the RV at the first sigh of the sun that morning and swallowed nervously when he remembered in which direction they were headed. When he heard the two children giggled together again, Old Jack looked back at Clem and Danny. Seeing them laugh together was enough to force a smile out of the old man.

"Look at that," Jack told Sara, nodding towards the two children playing together. "Looking at those two getting along like that, laughing together; you'd almost think the world hadn't ended." Old Jack felt a tear well up in his eye, but he wiped it away hurriedly.

"Yeah," Sara agreed, smiling when she saw her son doing the same. She had missed seeing Danny's innocent, freckled face light up like that. Apparently, all it had taken was another child in his life to remember how to smile. "If only that were true," she said with regret.

"Things were okay on the farm before," Danny explained to Clementine, his voice low with regret and misery. She noticed the boy was avoiding looking into her eyes. "But then the man in the sheriff's hat showed up," he went on. Clementine could tell simply by the way the boy spoke that he had seen his share of death and felt his share of pain, but he was doing everything he could to avoid speaking a word of it. "He did some bad things," Danny explained ambiguously, unwilling - or perhaps simply unable - to speak of The Sheriff's actions that were not doubt beyond evil. "People got scared. They started to leave the farm," Danny said. He paused, playing with his hands and continuing to avoid Clementine's eyes as his mind no doubt flooded with images of the wicked cruelties The Sheriff and his men had inflicted upon the Farm and its people. "Eventually, it was just us left," he concluded, his head bowed.

Clementine now had more questions than when Danny had begun. But she knew how carefully she had to tread. "What did he do?" She asked simply, though it could have been enough for the boy to burst into tears with the trauma he'd undoubtedly experienced.

"He crossed the line is what he did," a hoarse, grizzly voice from across the RV explained, its suddenness frightening Clementine. She spun her head round from Danny to see that the voice belonged to Dick, who still sat with his gun between his legs wiping the rifle down with a worn out rag. Beside him, his brother still slept, as did the majority of the RV. Old Jack had also returned to his slumber at the back of the RV, and Sara had drifted off to sleep on his shoulder.

Dick took a deep breath as he stuffed the dirty rag in one of the pockets of his old, muddy trench coat that fell to his knees. He cleared his throat as he set his rifle to one side with ease. "You see, Old Jack, my cousin…" Dick paused, a pained look showed on his old and tired face. "He had a wife. Maggie, her name was. Sweetest little thing you could imagine. Like a bird. They were inseparable. They raised this farm together. They had a family together. They lived _together_," Dick went on, his eyes never leaving Clementine. "Like I said," he paused, taking his eyes off Clem for a single second as he dwelled on his words. "inseparable," he said with remorse. His cold, war-torn eyes were back on Clem. "That was until the day The Sheriff rolled into town. You remember Johnny asked why Old Jack accepted this deal that involved handing over 60% of everything we made here over to Jeremiah and his boys? Well, at first he did. That didn't go down well," he explained, shaking his head as the toughest part of the story to tell came his way, "not at all." Dick smacked his tongue against his lips anxiously as he struggled to string together the next sentence. "He killed her. Maggie," Dick told Clementine, who immediately turned to Danny. The boy's head was bowed in remorse for his grandmother. "Old Jack's wife – she was the price he had to pay for turning their deal down… Now you understand why my cousin is so quick to follow this guy's orders," Dick said as he laid back in his seat. "Till now," he muttered.

"But why now?" Clementine asked, taking both Dick and Danny by surprise. They both sat forwards in their seats, and Clementine went quite. "I mean… why wait until now to act?"

Dick thought carefully about her question, smacking his tongue against his lips once again. "I don't know," he admitted. "Maybe my cousin's finally ready for some good old fashioned revenge. Maybe he really _does_ just wanna talk to the guy. Or maybe…" Clementine and Danny leaned closer to Dick, eager to hear the man's response. He looked up at them both, his face dead with seriousness. "Maybe he's just tired of life without his Maggie," he said. Dick pulled the rag out of his pocket, grabbed the rifle sat beside his feet, and began to wipe the weapon down again. Clementine sat back in her seat, silent once again.

* * *

"I'm ready," Lilly told him sternly as she studied her reflection in the Helicopter's windshield. She hardly recognised that tired, dirty and bloody war torn face of hers. Behind the damage this new world had done to her, she hoped the innocent, brunette with the freckles and beauty spots still remained. She looked down at her blood-soaked hands, a reminder of the person she'd become. The kind of person who wouldn't fail to kill if it meant protecting herself or those she cared about. The kind of person Jerry Winters was looking for.

"Good," Jerry replied from behind her, his boots sticking in Jackson's blood like quicksand as he walked through the puddle of red. "We leave within the hour," he told her.

"That soon?" He took Lilly by surprise. What was the rush?

"I finally have exactly what I've been looking for. I've done my waiting," he told her as he stepped closer to her. He took her soft, gentle hands in his. "I'm ready too."

"You'd just leave your men like that? Aren't they relying on you?" She asked, still confused.

"They're ready to make a go of it on their own. They don't need me anymore," he assured her. "And if they decide they do need someone to lead them, I know I can trust Tommy to do exactly that. The boy's ready," he told her confidently.

Lilly stared deep into Jerry blue eyes that glistened with passion. She felt her heart race excitedly, the thought of climbing inside that Chopper and leaving this place behind was almost enough to make her smile.

"Ahem," a man coughed from behind Jerry as to get his leader's attention. Tommy stood awkwardly and cowardly, his eyes on the ground beneath his feet.

"Tommy? Good," he told the boy assuredly. "Just the man I need to talk to…"

"Sheriff, if I may, there's something that requires your immediate attention. More _pressing_ concerns," he remarked, noticing The Sheriff and Lilly holding hands.

Jerry took his hands off Lilly embarrassedly. "What's the problem?" Jerry asked dutifully.

"It's Old Jack," Tommy explained sheepishly, his voice breaking with fear. "He's here."

"What the fuck does he want?" Jerry bellowed, his voice shaking Tommy to his core.

"He says…" Tommy struggled, still shaking. "He says he just wants to talk."

"Well then," Jerry said as he followed Tommy out of the hangar, "I guess we better go give him something to talk about. Have that Chopper ready for when I get back, Lilly," he shouted back at her. "This shouldn't take long," he uttered as he marched beside Tommy.

* * *

**Next time on ****_The Walking Dead_****: In the final chapter of Episode Three: Behind Closed Doors, the battle for Robins begins as Old Jack confronts The Sheriff and his men, demanding he free Clementine's friends. Meanwhile, Lilly is forced to make a decision that will change everything, and the fate of Clementine's friends are revealed. All in Chapter Eight: All Out War, coming soon!**

**Hey guys. Thanks for reading Chapter Seven: Campfire Song, a chapter I'm particularly proud of and I hope you all enjoyed! The final chapter is ready to be uploaded, so show me some reviews and it'll be up! Just let me know what you think of this chapter, this episode, the entire story or really anything you want! So, REVIEW/FAVOURITE/FOLLOW and wait patiently for ALL OUT WAR!**

**-George**


	26. Episode III - Chapter Eight

The Walking Dead: Season Two

Episode III: Behind Closed Doors

Chapter Eight: All Out War

**Previously on ****_The Walking Dead_****: Having barely escaped The Sheriff and his men back at the Air Force Base, Clementine, Donald and Johnny teamed up with Old Jack and his family to take him down, and take back the Base. Meanwhile, back at Robins, The Sheriff offers Lilly a place by his side in his mission to find the cause of the walker outbreak and destroy it, an offer Lilly can't refuse. Nearby, the rest of the survivors find themselves trapped in the armory with Todd's corpse, minutes from reanimating. Outside, Old Jack awaits an audience with The Sheriff, and the battle for Robins Air Force Base looms near.**

* * *

Jerry followed Tommy out of the giant, open doors of the hangar as the boy marched towards the gates of the Air Force Base. As soon as the golden sun hit him, Jerry felt his skin begin to burn under the day's breath-taking heat – his brow already sweating profusely. He wiped a wave of sweat from his forehead with the back of his dirty hand as he pulled a revolver from the back of his trousers. His silver badge gleamed as the shining sun hit it mercilessly. Jerry's hat kept the furious blaze of the sun out his eyes whilst also hiding his face beneath a dark shadow, keeping his men from seeing the cold, heartless eyes that gazed upon them one by one as he passed them – eyes that struck fear not only in the man's enemies, but his friends too. That was of course except for Jason Quesada, the man who'd looked into Jeremiah Winters' eyes and laughed in the face of death. But Jason and his garrison of bandits were at the back of Jerry's mind as he marched, Tommy still at his side, towards where Old Jack stood, far from the front gates of the Base, his hands in his pockets and a disappointed look on his old, withered face.

"Jack," Jerry welcomed the old man warmly. "It's been a while," he reminded him. Though Jerry wore a warm and welcoming smile, his eyes shot straight past Old Jack, focusing on the RV that roared like a caged animal at the gates of the Air Force Base.

"So it has," Old Jack replied without a smile, instead his face was dead with seriousness.

"So, what brings you here?" Jerry asked with an eyebrow raised quizzically, his voice suggesting suspicion of the old man. His eyes shot from the RV at his gates to the hunchbacked old man who stood feebly in front of him, his hands buried deep in his pockets. "I wasn't expecting another drop off until Friday," Jerry explained, though something told him Old Jack wasn't here to hand over food and supplies.

"I'm not here to make a drop off," Old Jack told him, confirming Jerry's suspicions. Old Jack's voice was blunt and fierce, and Jerry couldn't help but feel that the washed-up old farmer had forgotten his place. "I'm here about the poor bastards you have locked up in there!" Old Jack told him with an angry frown as he pointed in the direction of the hangar behind Jerry. "What the fuck kind of game are you playing here, Jerry?" Old Jack asked him, struggling to grasp Jerry's logic. But Old Jack should have asked a little nicer than that.

"Excuse me?" Jerry asked him with disgust as Old Jack showed him nothing but contempt. "Who the hell do you think you are showing up on _my_ doorstep, speaking to _me_ like that?" Jerry asked as he marched toward Old Jack, his boots hammering prints in the dirt beneath them, until he stood toe-to-toe with the man. "You better start treating me with a little more damn respect, old man," Jerry grudgingly told Old Jack mere inches from his face. "You'd almost think you didn't learn from the last time you disrespected me in front of my men," Jerry remarked. They _both_ knew what Jerry meant by that. It was enough to make Old Jack take a step back. "But we _both_ know that's not true." Jerry watched as Old Jack's eyes fell to the dirt between his feet. "I think we _all_ remember Maggie."

"DON'T YOU SAY HER GODAMN NAME!" Old Jack bellowed, loudly enough for Tommy and the other men that stood dutifully behind Jerry to raised their weapons in alarm. "You hear?" Old Jack asked, unfazed by the array of firearms being pointed in his face.

"Listen, Jack," Jerry began to say sincerely as he circled Old Jack, "I assure you I want nothing less than for any harm to come to any of your people." Jerry stopped in his tracks behind Old Jack where he leaned in and whispered into the man's ear. "But if you ever insult me in front of my men again I swear I won't hesitate to cut out your fucking tongue and watch you bleed," he whispered sinisterly into Old Jack's ear.

Old Jack turned pale as Jerry fell in between his men that sill stood dutifully with their weapons raised in Jack's direction. "Look, I'm only here to tell you to let these people go. They never did you no harm. So please, let them go – that's all I ask," he said calmly.

Jerry stood in between his men stroking his chin with his hand thoughtfully as he listened to Old Jack's request. Letting his prisoners go was never a thought that Jerry had ever considered. What had gotten Jerry thinking was why Old Jack was so interested in freeing these people – who were essentially, as far as Jerry knew, strangers to Old Jack – from their captivity. "In that case, what the fuck has it got to do with you – is all _I_ ask?" Jerry replied sarcastically.

"Please, Jerry," he thought he heard the old man beg. In all the time he'd know Old Jack, this had been a first. "They didn't ask for any of this. Just let them ago…"

"Why?" Jerry asked, smiling manically as he awaited an answer from Old Jack. "What exactly are you going to do to make me?" Jerry asked him as he took slow steps towards him.

In one quick movement, Jerry watched as Old Jack quickly drew something from his back pocket, only to hear a gunshot erupt behind him. The bullet zipped through Old Jack's chest and out the other side, sprinkling blood across Jerry's uniform and making him jump back out of sheer shock. He hadn't seen this coming. He watched Old Jack slump to the ground, falling on his back into the dirt as blood poured from the gaping hole in his chest. Behind him, Jerry saw Tommy's pistol raised, smoking from the shot.

Jerry stared deep into Tommy's eyes with utter contempt for the boy. He watched as the pistol rattled in his shaking hand until Tommy finally lowered the pistol, but his eyes still watched Old Jack, who lay dying in the dirt. Jerry waved a hand in front of Tommy in an effort to grab the boy's attention. An effort that proved to be of no avail. The boy didn't even flinch. That was when Jerry turned. Where Old Jack had reached out as he lay slowly dying in the dirt, Jerry saw now that he held in his hand nothing more than a pocket watch as golden as that day's sunshine. As he crouched beside Old Jack, who now mumbled incomprehensible words through a his mouth that leaked blood, he saw that on the inside of the pocket watch had been placed an old, worn-out photograph of Jack and Maggie, sat happily on the porch of their farmhouse. There was no sign of a gun or any kind of a weapon. What Old Jack held in his hand was nothing more harmless that a memory. And Old Jack felt something he hadn't felt in a long time. Regret.

Beyond Old Jack's body, Jerry's eyes found the RV. Immediately, Jerry noticed the RV had moved since he'd last seen it. Were Old Jack's people running scared? What Jerry saw next proved him very much wrong. As the RV pushed forward, it revealed the vehicle it had been hiding. Now, the huge, green, roaring tank that Jerry had once handed over as a gesture of peace was stood at his gates, ready for war.

The colossal, monster toppled the fence as though it were made out of sand instead of steel as the tank came roaring towards Jerry and his men. He heard the fence twist and shriek as it was slowly crushed by the tank that came lumbering towards him. He heard his men's guns click around him as they prepared for an all-out war with Old Jack's people. Jerry was so absorbed by the enormous size of the tank that he have not heard Tommy's cries.

"JERRY!" Tommy screamed in his ear, finally gaining his attention and returning him to this planet. "What do we do?" He asked him. Just by looking at the boy, Jerry could tell that Tommy was not only terrified, but totally clueless as to what to do next. He knew then that the boy obviously wasn't ready to lead this group. Jerry took a deep breath.

"We fight," he told Tommy, who then nodded in respect of his decision. It didn't matter whether the choice he'd made was the right one. He'd be long gone before it mattered.

* * *

Michael could feel the scorching heat burning the back of his neck mercilessly as he followed the tank closely, a rifle in his arms, beside his uncles. He was prowling behind the tank, his gun loaded and ready, in between Dick and Harold, both armed and dangerous. Michael barked at Jimmy, who drove the tank, to keep on steering it forward, though he couldn't be sure that his younger brother had heard him through the tank's thick walls. He heard Dick fire his rifle as he peered over the tank to take a shot and The Sheriff or one of his men. Michael took a quick look to see one of The Sheriff's men fall as a bullet tore through their torso spraying blood across the armed man next to him. He ducked immediately after, only to hear a bullet hit the shell of the tank mere inches from where he'd stood. Michael hadn't taken a long enough look to count The Sheriff's men, but he, Dick and Harold were clearly outnumbered – they'd known that from the start. But they had one thing The Sheriff didn't. They had a tank, and someone who knew how to use it.

"KEEP FIRING!" Michael heard Dick shout through ears that were ringing from the gunshots that filled the air, most of which were being aimed towards the three of them. "DON'T. STOP. FIRING!" Dick bellowed in between taking desperate shots at The Sheriff and his men. He must have taken down no less than a half dozen of them. Now it was Michael's turn.

Michael hadn't felt his heart beat like this since the first time he'd first encountered one of the walking dead. Who would have thought that, after a zombie breakout plagues the world, it would be the living that would cause Michael and his family the most pain?

Michael peered over the tank sheepishly. Upon spotting the armed man that was raining bullets down on the three of them, Michael aimed his rifle carefully and took a deep breath. He squeezed the trigger. Michael watched as the bullet zipped through the man's skull, knocking him senseless to the ground. He watched his body plummet to the ground. A man in glasses, wielding a 9mm pistol, came to his rescue too late. He held the lifeless body in his arms as he screamed for a medic to come to his aid, but to no avail. Michael watched as the man in glasses dropped his friend's body, forced to abandon him, al whilst fighting back tears. Suddenly, Michael felt himself being yanked back down behind cover just as another array of bullets came hitting the tank's walls. Harold slapped Michael across the face with the back of his hand as Dick continued to fire fiercely upon The Sheriff and his men.

"You trying to get yourself killed, son?" Harold bellowed, though Michael could still barely hear him over the bullets that continued to fire their way. "This isn't a fucking game!"

"I'm sorry," Michael apologised, though the battlefield was no time for sincerity.

"Don't be sorry!" Dick barked from nearby. "Just don't go dying on us!"

* * *

Clementine watched at the three heroes cowered behind the hull of the tank as a seemingly endless wave of bullets fell upon them. She watched Dick take down another couple of men, whilst Harold and Michael's shots weren't as successful. Johnny continued to pace up and down the RV behind her, whilst Donald and Sara remained in their seats. Danny had climbed the seat beside her to join her in watching the battle through the window. Chaos was all they saw. As the tank neared them more so, the men with guns took steps back. Clementine watched as the man in the sheriff's uniform disappear. He darted inside one of the hangars, leaving his men alone and afraid. They were losing and they knew it.

"They're doing it!" Danny shouted with enthusiasm, overjoyed at their success. "They're running away!" Clementine could see The Sheriff's men dropping their guns and bolting it out of there at the mere sight of the tank.

"Stay away from the windows, honey," Sara softly warned her son. "It's not safe."

"But Dad – he's kicking their asses!" Danny exclaimed excitedly. Clementine giggled beside him. The two kids smiled at each other before returning to watching the battle play out.

That was when Clementine saw Dick dart from his cover at the hull of the tank to the steps of the men's barracks, likely to gain a better vantage point. He was halfway to his new spot when the old man must have been clipped by a bullet. Clementine watched him tumble into the dirt, clutching his side in pain where Dick began to leak red liquid as Michael and Harold shouted after him from the tank. Harold fled from the cover of the tank over to where his brother lay in the line of fire waiting to be killed. With all of his might, Harold lifted his brother and dragged him to the barracks where the two took cover. The fact that neither of them had been shot in the process had to have been some kind of miracle.

"I'm going out there," Clementine heard Johnny murmur. "They need me," he explained louder than before. Johnny grabbed a rifle from the table top, swung open the door of the RV, and was gone before Clementine could protest.

It wasn't until she heard a monstrous explosion that Clementine turned back to see out the window. Smoke billowed from the main gun of the tank and Clementine heard men scream and shout in the distance. Jimmy had just fired the tank.

* * *

Johnny hopped over the remains of the fence that had been toppled and crushed by the incredible weight of the tank, carrying a rifle in his arms, as he made his way to the battlefield to join the fight. He spotted Dick and Harold taking cover at the barracks. Dick's gunshot wound hadn't stopped him from fighting. With his brother's support, he continued to fire at The Sheriff's men. Johnny watched him take down two or three armed men by the team he reached the tank where Michael still took cover. Michael, deafened by the blast of the tank's gun, didn't hear Johnny coming. When he saw him crouched beside him, Michael turned his rifle on Johnny. His heart raced as he looked down the barrel of Michael's gun.

"Fuck, man! It's me! Chill out!" He quickly shouted at Michael, loud enough for him to hear.

"Shit, I'm sorry," Michael apologised nervously. Johnny could see that he was shaking.

Peering over the hull of the tank, Johnny made out less than half a dozen armed men remaining. This war was almost over – and they were winning. But Johnny's heart sank when he saw one of the men arming what resembled a missile launcher before pointing the weapon directly at the tank the two were hiding behind.

"Oh shit," Johnny cursed under his breath as the man's finger tightened around the weapon's trigger. "RUN!" Johnny bellowed as loud as his lungs would allow. He pushed Michael towards the barracks as they darted away from the tank as fast as their legs would carry them. Johnny heard a quite poof, but the moments that followed were silent. Not a second later, Johnny had been thrown off his feet and was being carried through the air by a hot and heavy force. The deafening explosion followed. Johnny's ears were still ringing by the time he landed flat in the dirt, his face buried in the ground.

Johnny felt metal shards of the tank land beside him in hot balls of fire. When he finally pulled himself up, Johnny saw what remained of the tank. It was nothing more than a fiery, heap of blackened scrap metal from which a grim shade of black smoke billowed, though there was no sign of Jimmy. Through the fire, Johnny could just about make out the man with the missile launcher, who now wore an evil and sadistic smirk across his face.

"How we doin'?" Johnny asked an uncomfortable Michael, a disgruntled Harold and a still bleeding-out Dick as he joined them in taking cover behind the steps of the Men's Barracks.

"Been better," Dick spat as his brother pressed a rag to his gushing wound. Despite this madness and the bullet wound that was almost killing him, Dick still managed a smile.

Johnny turned to peer over the steps. He saw the burning wreck that remained of Old Jack's, but there was still no sign of Jimmy. Smoke continued to billow from the fiery heap of metal as the war around them raged on, despite the amount of men Dick had single-handedly taken down. But now, their best gunman was down. Now, it was Johnny's turn.

Johnny darted over to the fiery remain of the tank, his view of the men with guns blurred by the fire and smoke that made his eyes water. But if he couldn't see _them_, then _they_ couldn't see _him_ either. At least, Johnny was taking that risk. He slid to cover behind the tank, as hot and dangerous to be around as it was, as he escaped the array of bullets that he'd felt zip past him on his way there. The fire burned him until he sweat through his white shirt, bloodied shirt. Johnny's heart stopped when he heard a gun click from nearby.

Johnny looked over his shoulder. From the corner of the tank, out of the flames of hell, had emerged one of The Sheriff's men. The man had to have been no more than thirty years old. Johnny saw his own reflection in the stranger's eyeglasses. He also then noticed where the man was missing a hand. A bloody bandage marked his stump. Johnny saw the man smile as he pointed a 9mm pistol down to Johnny, it's barrel mere inches from his face.

"Any last words, kid?" The man asked Johnny in a grizzly southern accent.

"Yeah," Johnny said positively, with a faint smile to match his. He slowly got to his feet, raising his hands to surrender a he did so until he stood at the height of the armed man. "Behind you," Johnny mocked, his eyes on something behind the man that made him smile.

Tommy span around in a panicked state, taking his eye off the ball for enough time for Johnny to gain the upper hand. Tommy was flabbergasted when he saw what was behind him – nothing. By the time he had span back around, Johnny had picked up a hot piece of scrap metal from the burning pile beside them which he held raised in the air. Johnny clocked Tommy across the face with the hot metal, smashing his glasses and more than likely a couple of teeth with them. He heard Tommy's teeth chatter as he spewed blood and saliva from his mouth. He fell flat to the ground, knocked out by the heavy, clunky piece of metal. Johnny stood, admiring his work so much that he forgot to let go of the metal. He felt his skin sticking to the hot scrap metal, and dropped it in a quick, frightened movement.

Johnny stepped back, dusted himself off, grabbed his gun and joined the fight again.

* * *

A well-aimed bullet from Harold, who rested his gun on his brother's shoulder as the two refused to leave each other, took down the last of The Sheriff's men that Michael could see. As soon as he saw him fall, Michael bolted. He threw himself on his feet and in the direction of his father, who still laid in the dirt as the chaos continued to erupt around him. Michael felt bullets zip past him as he ducked and jumped on his way to where his father lay. He saw more armed men spilling out of one of the hangars. But Michael could hear his uncles and Johnny fighting back from the corners of the Base as he sprinted to his father. He saw The Sheriff's men fall. But his legs didn't stop moving for a second. Not until he found himself by his father's side, his hand in his as Old Jack laid dying beside him.

"Dad?" Michael could see the faintest of light in his father's eyes as they flickered open and closed, like a lightbulb that was about to run out of juice. "Can you hear me?"

Michael heard his father breath heavily as blood still poured from the hole in his chest. Michael threw his hands over his father's wound, but he knew it was too late. "Son," he heard his father utter through breathlessness in a weak voice.

"I'm here," Michael assured his father. He saw the pocket watch he held onto for dear life.

"Son," Old Jack repeated, this time with the faintest of smiles. He coughed up blood. But his cough turned into a laugh. "I'll be seeing your mother again soon," he said happily.

"Don't be silly, Dad," Michael told him. "We can still fix you. You're gonna be fine."

"No," the father assured his son. "It's okay. I'm ready," he explained. "I want to see her again," he told his son through a croaky voice as his eyes flooded with tears. "I miss her."

"Me too," Michael told him. "You tell her that, okay? Tell her I miss her. And I love her."

"She knows," Old Jack told his son, who was now fighting back tears. "But I'll tell her." "Listen, son," Old Jack began to say. Michael leaned in closer to hear his father's last words. "Help these people. Free their friends. _Lead_ them. _Protect_ them just like you did our group," he told his son, who nodded dutifully, accepting the responsibility. "They're family now. And nothing's more important, and worth protecting than family," he explained. "I need you to protect these people," Old Jack pleaded with his last breaths. "Will you do that, son?"

"I'll do my best," Michael told his father as tears rolled down his bloody and dirty cheeks.

"S'all I ask," were Old Jack's last words. As the distant glow of light faded from his father's eyes, Michael let Jack's hand go and tucked the pocket watch away. Back on his feet, Michael loaded his rifle and stormed towards the hangar, where his father's killer awaited.

* * *

He found Jimmy crawling towards one of the hangars, leaving a trail of sweat and blood that Johnny couldn't see but he could taste in the air. He heard Jimmy mumbling for his father, his brother, and even his uncles. Johnny crouched beside him and flipped the boy over effortlessly. He slapped his cheeks and called his name, but Jimmy was beyond dazed. His ears were likely still ringing from the explosion and he was no doubt caught in the explosion enough to suffer burns and perhaps even been caught by loose shrapnel. Johnny checked him for cuts, burns and more. One of Jimmy's hands had been burned to a crisp, and Johnny noticed a stick of shrapnel poking out of his shoulder. The kid needed a doctor.

"I need a Doctor!" Johnny screamed, the adrenaline shaking his voice to make him sound five years younger, though he knew it was hopeless. He sighed. Had he really expected a Doctor to jump out of thin air to save the day? Johnny looked at Jimmy. He was dying.

"I'm a Doctor," Johnny heard a voice say. He was almost certain he hadn't imagined it. Through the smoke that the wind had sent billowing their way, Johnny began to make out a figure slowly emerging from the curtain of black and grey. The man wore pale green Doctor's scrubs, though they were stained with fresh, crimson blood. "I can help."

Johnny was speechless. "I-," he tried to say, but he didn't even know where to start.

"He's in shock." The Doctor rushed over to them both and was knelt beside Jimmy before Johnny could intervene. Before he knew, the Doctor was cleaning Jimmy's face with a rag and studying his wounds. Finally, he looked up at Johnny. "You should probably get back to it," he told Johnny through thick, black eyeglasses that gleamed in the sun. He must have been almost sixty, and yet he seemed to have a better grasp of the situation than Johnny.

"Right," Johnny agreed, though he couldn't have said he wasn't still confused as hell. When he spotted Michael rushing inside one of the hangars, Johnny bolted after him.

* * *

"They're coming!" Lilly heard Jerry shout as he darted across the hangar. The Chopper was ready for lift off. Now, there was no turning back. This was happening. She felt Jerry climb aboard behind her, and she heard curse under his breath as he checked his revolver's bullet count. His gun was as empty as he was. "Fuck", she heard him mutter. But it wasn't the lack of ammo that was upsetting him. "The roof," he explained. _Shit_, Lilly cursed to herself. He hadn't even opened the roof for them. "Take off. I'll be right back," he ordered her as he jumped off the Helicopter to run for the switch that, annoyingly, was located across the hangar. She watched his bolt from the Chopper to the other side of the hangar. She swallowed the lump in her throat. This was starting to seem less and less like a good idea.

"Fuck. Fuck. Fuck," Jerry cursed aloud as he fumbled with the switchboard clumsily, pushing and twisting random dials until something worked. At the push of the biggest red button in sight, Jerry heard the panels of the hangar's ceiling extend. He felt the blaze of the sun on his skin immediately. Cooking him from inside out as he sweat profusely. He gave Lilly a big thumbs up, but the gesture was not returned from the passenger seat where Lilly sat, her headset around her ears. She gazed with fear at something behind Jerry. When he turned, he saw Michael stood proudly, his rifle aimed straight for Jerry's head. The game was up.

"Shit," Jerry cursed, his smile had well and truly disappeared and been replaced by a look of concern that showed the man's age. "Well, kid," he said sadistically, "you got me."

"Shut the fuck up," Michael barked at The Sheriff, pointing his rifle further in his face. A face that he had come to hate. The face of his mother and father's killer. "I'll kill you. You hear me? I'LL KILL YOU!" Michael bellowed, making his voice heard across the hangar.

"Do it," Jerry insisted, unfazed as he gazed down the barrel of the gun. "Do. It."

"I will," Michael assured him nervously, the rifle shaking in his arms. "I'll do it…"

They never took their eyes off each other. It was the longest ten seconds of Michael's life. His heart beat like a drum. He was certain it was going to explode when he heard a loud CRASH erupt from behind him, like a wrecking ball had just hit the building.

Michael span around in a flash to see an enormous, black, bald man with his hands on his knees, out of breath, in front of the giant metal door he'd just forced out of its frame with his incredible strength and size. Michael could hear the man huff and puff from here.

"Coach! Move!" Michael heard a girl shout as she darted past the man, followed by an old woman and another young man with a swollen, black eye. They flooded out of the armoury, and Michael now understood why. He saw the walker chasing them. And he saw the girl grab the ice tool that had been left by the side of the door. She grasped it tight and swung it in the walker's direction, burying the metal point in the walker's right eye. When she pulled it loose, the eyeball came loose with it, hanging off the pick and making even Michael feel squeamish. The walker eventually slumped to the floor right by their feet, and it wasn't until she decided the thing was dead that the girl with blonde hair turned to Michael and The Sheriff. An evenly balanced look of both shock, disgust and terror filled the girl.

"You…" Molly murmured, her eyes fixated on The Sheriff and the evil stare he sent her back.

Michael eyes jumped between The Sheriff and Molly. He didn't know who to look at. Bu the couldn't ignore the obvious fact: these two knew each other. Now looking Molly, Michael realised how beautiful the girl was. The next feeling Michael felt was the cold bite of sharp steel as Jerry plunged his blade into his stomach and twisted until he felt the warm, red blood drip from the dragger. He let the knife go and watched Michael fall to the floor. After catching Molly's hateful glimpse one last time, Jerry darted for the Helicopter. By the time he'd climbed inside the cabin, the Chopper was metres off the ground, and the angry mob seemed like a world away. That was, until Jerry felt the ice tool plunge into the metal of the Helicopter after being flung from Molly below. Jerry watched the oil tank already start to leak. Their take off had been successful, but they weren't getting very far.

Lilly looked back upon the Base and its settlers one last time before clearing the Chopper out of there. They were only sever feet off the ground still, and Lilly could just about make out the faces of the those in the angry mob that had hounded Jerry out of the hangar. Though they wanted much more than to see him leave - they wanted the man dead – which was only another reason Lilly had begun to doubt the side she'd chosen. She saw Molly, who stared hatefully at them both. She saw Donald and Alice in each other's arms as they were finally reunited; they paid Lilly no heed. She saw Omid and Christa; neither of them were even able to look her in the eye. She even caught eyes with Johnny, who looked at her with disgust. Who could blame him? Especially after the way she'd let Tom punish him for his wrongdoings in the past. Thank God Tom couldn't see her now. And then, she saw Clementine. She caught eyes with girl for a good few seconds. But the girl's expression was blank, hiding the pain she likely felt from being abandoned like this. She only lifted her hand, and offered Lilly and empty wave goodbye. Lilly wiped a tear from her eye and, as they finally emerged from the hangar, steered the Chopper toward the sunset, leaving Robins Air Force Base behind them both… for now.

* * *

**Next time on ****_The Walking Dead_****: In the aftermath of the battle for Robins Air Force Base, the remaining survivors must bury their dead and decide their next move. But with Lilly gone, someone must step up as leader, and nobody is in any rush to volunteer. Meanwhile, The Sheriff and Lilly begin their journey, only to encounter an unexpected delay that could cost them both their lives at the hands of an enemy that neither of them anticipated. Episode IV: Prisoners of War begins in Chapter One: After the Storm, coming soon...**


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